


Vox Populi

by Unpronounceable



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Multi, Probably not very steady updates and for that I'm seriously sorry, Ratings might change, Rebellionstuck, corrupted government
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-03-04
Updated: 2012-07-18
Packaged: 2017-11-01 03:19:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/351354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unpronounceable/pseuds/Unpronounceable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a corporation-slash-law system named the Systema Amicis has taken over a big part of the continents, ruling with an iron fist, Karkat decides he's sick of it and gathers his friends, with every intention to 'fuck shit up'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

In March, the King was finally overthrown. No countries had kings anymore; that system was as outdated as the computer model that was considered the best three years ago, but was now in the shadow of the latest, coolest new one. Everyone in the land rejoiced like it was Christmas, hoping for new times. Then the big depression hit; now that they didn’t have a king, who was going to run their land?

In June, a new government came along. The country had gone through rough times since the loss of a king, there was no money and few jobs. Things went downhill, but now, this new system was presented. Other countries who had the same system praised it through the roof, and Ternia was more than happy to finally have someone put order on things.

In the beginning of August, after the new system had been accepted and made official, things started looking up. More jobs were available, the hand of law had hardened considerably reducing all crime. People could walk the streets safely again. You didn’t have to expect assault at every occasion. The school system was tightened, leaving the children with less free time but better grades.  
Things were getting better.  
They’d be okay.

In October, a new law was introduced. Due to much harmful usage of the mail, all letters were to be examined. Because people had been sending drugs through mail, they said. We don’t want that in our lovely country, do we?

On the last day of October, you had to buy a permission to cross the border into the neighbor country, Dersed. Too many people traveled freely and smuggled illegal wares between countries.  
It was safer this way.

In the middle of November, people started to see something was wrong. The police abused their power, to a point where some kids were arrested for not zipping up their hoodies on order. Complaints were made. People protested. But the System didn’t answer their questions, instead opting a new, tighter rein on the metaphorical horse. The Police were the power, and no one was to disobey.

In late December, communication through the internet was forbidden unless under surveillance. A firewall was created, one where you could only visit websites personally allowed by the System. And there weren’t many of those. Chatrooms were blocked, so were the blogs, the video sharing, the picture sharing, news, and everything else. You couldn’t turn on your computer without Them knowing.  
People were started to get bad vibes.

In February, you couldn’t cross the border anymore. Not without a special admission. Any attempt to leave the country without permit was immediately shot down.  
Sometimes literally.

In May, anyone caught talking indecently about the System was to be fined a large sum. If they resisted, arrest was the next option. Protest groups were violently silenced, there were ears everywhere to hear any badly spoken word.

In June, all acts of public display of affection were to be ceased. There would be no holding hands, no kissing, and certainly no sex. Furthermore, people of the same gender could not be in a relationship anymore. Anyone caught committing acts of this sexual dysfunction were justifiably jailed and punished.  
All protests were silenced before they were even heard.

In September, people were too scared to speak. Everything was punishable, people were encouraged to report any acts of defiance, under the chance of a reward. And people needed the money; more than before. No one could be trusted. Kids reported their parents talking bad about the Government, parents reported their children showing public affection to their partner. Friends stabbed friends in the back.  
They’d heard such good things about this new System because the System didn’t allow anything else. The nation had trapped themselves in a corner, and there was no way out. Misery raged in the country, but no one ever knew, because the nation was too scared to stand up. Every complaint was silenced. Every compliment was a lie.

In November, the caste system was reintroduced. Bloodcolour would matter again, and all classes would be put in their respectable place. From Slavery to Royalty. From misery to bliss. This would serve to give everyone a job fit for their status.

On the same day in November, at the very public annunciation of the revival of the Hemospectrum in a city called Puze, the announcer was thrown off stage to be replaced by a young, unknown man.  
A leader. An idol.  
A rebel.

It had taken two years for the System to run the entire continent to hell, and someone finally had enough.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this is long and uninteresting and bad, but I feel inadequate if I don't give backstories. Which is basically the happenings in Homestuck, only I altered it some.

“--After careful consideration, the Systema Amicis has made the decision to revive the Hemospectral ways.”

Guards surrounded the vast group of people listening intently to the announcer reading from the festive piece of paper. A single mic was on his headset, connected to large speakers behind him, blaring the cigarette-abused and croaky voice of the middle-aged man. Cigarettes were something only people like him could afford, now that things had changed. The same was for alcohol, medicine, and sex protection.

The sight of the crowd hanging on the announcer's every word might have looked fine to anyone else, if you were a fly just passing by before setting off to a more healthy, happy land. But a better look could tell you things weren't right at all. Armed policemen encircled the crowd, holding them in a prim circle with no means of escape. The people were completely silent staring at the stage in front of them, not out of respect or excitement but from fear and anxiety, with desolate looks on their faces.

“All Psionics have been sought out to fulfill their respective orders, and their families shall as such receive the large bonus following.”

A year's worth of food and electricity in exchange for your psionic's life. Be it a family member, a friend or a lover, if someone had the power of psionics at hand, the same person would be doomed to a life of slavery. All psionics or guardians of psionics were to report the existence of one. Children born with the power would be sent to PsiCamp at the age of six, where they would be taught to control their type of psionics for other trolls to use. Adults were simply harvested like ripe corn, taken from their homes without warning. Failure to report a psionic or a psionic resisting recruit would be handled with force.

“All bloods are to form a line in front of your representing counselor; from left to right, red hues to purple hues. Each hue will be given a respectable job and assigned a new home fit for their blood. You will each receive--”

All the miserable faces of the crowd turned from hopeless, to curious, to shocked, as a disturbance was noted on the right side of the stage. The announcer tried to continue talking in spite of the obvious commotion.

“All -eh, all hues, of -of blood are- oh my, what is-”

And then a remarkable moment in history occurred, though the present spectators of it would consider it silly. A young troll, short but not weak-looking, quite the contrary, stormed onto the stage in large, commanding strides. In a half jog, he reached the teal-blooded man and promptly pushed him off the stage. While he was nose-diving down, this unknown troll grabbed the headset from the air and held it in his hand.

“People of Puze, of Ternia!”

A deep, soft voice sounded through the many speakers, humming through every ear, booming in the crowd's stomachs.

“Is this the land we chose to live in? Do I have to remind you that the Hemospectral system nearly wiped us all out centuries ago?”

The guards were trying to reach the stage, but the mass of people was thick and the door to the stage locked; somehow, this troll had just jumped over the large iron fence.

“I know I didn't want all these bullshit rules, and I think I know you didn't either! Since when is it wrong to be with whoever we like? Since when can’t we show people we have someone to be with?”

The troll's horns were hidden by a large hood on the sweater he wore, so baggy it destroyed all physical characteristics. The guards were nearing now, but still had trouble accessing the stage. People were listening with intent, pure intrigue shining in every face.

“What right do they have, huh? Are we just dogs they can beat into submission? Are we kids that do whatever mommy tells us to, 'cause mommy knows best? No! We are the people, we _are_ this country! We have fucking voices! So let the fatcats destroying us hear them!”

A cheer or two were heard.

“Do we want more rules? No! Do we want a stricter system? No! Do we want the slavery and injustice the Hemospectrum has to offer? Hell fucking no! What we want is freedom! And if they won't hand it to us, then god help us, we will TAKE it!”

This time, more half-smothered shouts of approval were heard. A face or two set in a determined frown. A few had the glimmer of hope in their eyes, but even more had the spark of fear.  Before proper cheers could be heard, a shot sounded, silencing everything. The anonymous troll stumbled, dropping the mic in favor of clutching at his shoulder. Before anyone could even catch a glimpse of the blood revealing, the guards stormed onto the stage. The troll ran in their direction, using one guard's head to jump over the fence. Before anyone could realize where he'd gone, he was running off, quickly disappearing into the mucky grey city, his bland clothes serving as camouflage. As a couple of guards moved to follow the offender, a sneaker sailed from somewhere in the crowd, hitting one straight in the face. Such a rebellious act was unheard of, and the guard moved for the crowd before being stopped by his fellow reminding him that another troll had just stated _war_ on the System. Before either of them could get their heads on straight, the mysterious troll had vanished.

The crowd was set home, promised that the ceremony would take place some other time. Though really, no one mourned the loss of the Hemospectrum taking over. A few more days of freedom were better than nothing. The troll that bashed the show was deemed a lunatic, and dismissed as a possible hero.

 

One troll, though, one tall, strong-looking troll was thinking back to the event with admiration and wonder. He himself hated the Hemospectrum with a passion, but wasn't brave or hot-headed enough to speak out like that courageous troll had. Although he had thrown one of his shoes at the guards to help the guy escape, and he was actually quite proud of himself for that, even if he only had a single shoe now and couldn’t afford another one at all.  
 He hated everything the System had brought with it. Because of It, his life was turned upside down and into the dumps. He thought he'd lost everything when he lost his blood-equality, but now, after this…  
Maybe there was hope, after all.

 

Seven alleyways down and a few to the left, a troll was panting, sliding down a wall like a rag doll on shaking legs. He didn’t know what had come over him, but his intense hatred for the Hemospectrum had probably clouded his more rational vision. Yet, he felt he had only been saying what needed to be said. And it had felt good, being listened to, feeling he was reaching the repressed hearts of the people. He'd wanted this for years.  
But his aching shoulder, pounding heart and screaming lungs currently had him convinced this had been a very bad decision indeed.  
 “Fuck it…” he sighed heavily, flipping his hood back with his good arm to reveal messy, short hair and two very un-intimidating, nubby, orange horns.  
“Fuck it all.”

 

The news of the rebellious Preacher, as he had so lovingly been dubbed, didn't travel fast at all. This was understandable in a community where talking about certain subjects was illegal and punishable. Even so, in the shelter of night, roaring traffic, or a troll's home, no one could stop the gossipy nature of the people.

“I was there, man. I saw it happen. This guy is onto something, I just know it.”  
“I was there too, moron, and I'm telling you he's a loonie. All bark and no bite. Yeah, he was probably on Sopor or something and decided to say what we all think, but so what? Not like he's gonna do anything either way.”  
“He kicked the guards' asses, and got away with it! I think that's fucking something.”  
“He ran like a coward, big fuckin' whoop.”  
“As if you would dare do something like crashing a public event! You're a stinking hypocrite!”  
“I'm not stupid or drugged. That’s the difference between me and this Preacher.”

Some considered him a nutcase, while some found him to be a hero, a spokesman for the people. But the mysterious rebel wasn't heard from after this in a long time, and so all rumors and stories died down after some time passing.  
But one troll was so infatuated with this admirable figure that he didn’t cease to wonder who was under the hood.

Tavros Nitram was a very unlucky troll. His life had been extremely affected when the System took charge, probably more so than other's. Before even that, he'd lost the few friends he had.

For as long as he could remember, he'd simply been a very awkward and embarrassing troll. His horns were way too big for his small, pudgy body, causing constant scenarios where he got stuck in various things. For the longest time, doors were his arch enemies, later joined by stairs.  
Then he'd lost all mobility of his legs.  
And that had started the fall of his friends, although things had been on the verge of boiling over for a long time.  
There used to be the twelve of them; Tavros, Karkat, Gamzee, Sollux, Vriska, Aradia, Nepeta, Equius, Terezi, Kanaya, Eridan and Feferi. They were the biggest clique in the neighborhood, and known for it.  
Not all was peachy within their group of friends, though. The strength of their friendship varied greatly between individuals. But they were close, like family, and they made it work. Until Vriska. Vriska and Tavros had a strange relationship. It was kind of like the tough love between two brothers, only Tavros could never and would never hurt a fly, and Vriska was sometimes simply cruel. You could even call it domestic violence, or bullying.  
Regardless, they did sometimes play together, and sometimes it was okay. Those times, Vriska seemed to actually enjoy herself instead of striving to be the best, to win. She'd laugh and joke around, and it was nice. Other times, she'd take advantage of Tavros's submissiveness and use to her advantage.  
That one time…that one time she just went too far. She would always use her mind control to tease the other kids, but she rarely used it in a seriously harmful way. Not on them, at least. But maybe she was in an unusually bad mood, or she wasn't thinking right, either way; she forced Tavros to jump off the roof of a three-story building, resulting in his legs becoming unusable.  
Things just escalated from there. Gamzee refused to talk to Vriska after that. He and Tavros had always been very close, and the Indigo blood took the assault personally. But he was a peaceful guy, so he only ignored her.  
Aradia, however, another of Tavros’s closest friends, didn't take it so lightly. She was a powerful psionic of the telekinesis kind, and had the rare ability to commune with the dead. To put it shortly, she was strong and pissed at Vriska, and saw it as her duty to try and set her straight.

It was meant as a warning; it was never supposed to end like this.

She summoned some ghosts to haunt Vriska, because as hardened as she looked, she had feelings nonetheless. Feelings and regrets. And the dead had a way of knowing all your sensitive spots.

Vriska probably didn't want it to go this far either, but she couldn't loose. Vriska Serket didn't loose.  
The next thing Tavros knew, Aradia had been seriously injured, to a point where she was dead for a moment. Apparently, Vriska had used Sollux as a weapon to get revenge on Aradia.  
 Sollux was devastated afterwards, since he and Aradia had been very close. Another person refused to have anything to do with Vriska.  
 Aradia didn't die, but she came back…different. Almost like she was soulless. The cheery, sisterly girl they used to know and love was gone, replaced by an emotionless husk that didn't care for anyone or anything.

Sollux had always been a bit unstable, but after that he was just dangerous, mostly to himself. Normally Terezi would have seen this, but maybe she'd been blinded with rage as well.  
Vriska had stolen something very powerful from a very powerful man. Terezi somehow got the means to tell this guy, Tavros thought he remembered him being a doctor, and the man wasn't amused. Not one bit.  
Vriska had been attacked by some of his henchmen, and lost an arm and an eye. By the logic of and eye for an eye -kind of literally- she planted a bomb in Terezi's room. Terezi was blinded by the explosion. Not that it stopped her form being her cackling self.

By now, half of their group didn't want anything to do with Vriska. Kanaya and her had an out falling before any of this, and their friendship had been tested until it crumbled. Karkat had every reason to hate Vriska; she'd destroyed his best friend's sanity, blinded a girl he secretly admired, and ripped apart the group of which he was the unspoken leader.

Then Eridan just had to go and flip out. He suddenly didn't want anything to do with "stupid, un-evolved land-dwellers", and had a fit. Feferi had always been the one to at least try and hold them all together, but she was the daughter of the queen and by the age of 16 was too busy with royal tendencies to be with them much. She moved away, much to hers and everyone's disdain because Feferi was really a very sweet girl.  
 This made Eridan the highest on the Hemospectrum, and therefore made Equius follow his every move.  
Equius was infatuated with blood colours despite them being irrelevant for years, and Eridan was quick to take advantage of it. His little adoptive sister, Nepeta, therefore had no choice but to follow him as he followed Eridan away from their group of friends.  
Somehow, the rest of them just got torn up.  
They all lost contact with one another, and then the System came in. The most likely way of finding them again, through chatrooms, was shut down. Tavros had tried to reach them again; he truly cared for all of them, even Equius who treated him like crap. He had built him his wheelchair, after all, and later on his metallic legs. At the command of Gamzee, of course, but all the same.  
Tavros wanted everyone back.

And as if Tavros's life wasn’t depressing enough after that, the System now said he had to be positioned according to his blood. His blood was brown, he was the second lowest type of blood there was, doomed to a life of slavery and misery.  
 This new rebel troll had stirred something inside him. Timid and reserved as Tavros was, he wasn't a coward. He wanted to fight as well, but had repressed the thought until now. But what if he had a leader? A comrade? So that he wouldn't be alone in the fight, he'd have someone who understood…and a brave, bold troll like that one, to boot.  
But no one had heard of him since the fateful speech. No matter how far and wide Tavros searched, he couldn't find any new word of the Preacher. Slowly, the kindle of hope in his heart started losing its luminescence.

 

Tavros trudged through the muddy streets of his neighborhood, the bad kind, due to his lack of money. Being immobile for so long hadn't helped him get a job, and even now people looked at his iron legs with distaste. They worked fine, better than normal legs even, but people didn't see that. _'Soon'_ , Tavros thought, _'I'll probably be dead. No one will want a crippled slave, especially not one like me. I'll be killed on the spot and no one will know, or care. Oh well, at least I won't have to suffer through labor.'_ Tavros was quite wordy in his mind, thought when he spoke it was mostly stutter and hesitated shyness.  
His storm of negative thoughts were interrupted when he bumped into someone rather harshly. Before, this would have sent him falling on his backside, but Tavros had grown to be strangely tall and bulky for someone of his character. The other troll wasn't so lucky, the rather short fellow was sent tumbling backwards into the soaked street.  
“Shit! Fuck, shit, fuck.” he mumbled, shaking his hands rid of mud before placing them back down, defeating the purpose entirely, to try and raise himself up.  
“Oh, uh, sorry! I'm really sorry, sir, er, here, let me, uh...”  
Tavros awkwardly offered the other man a hand, which was batted away as the other troll managed to get his feet under him and stand up.  
“Yeah yeah, whatever. Watch where you aim that brick wall of a body, you could give someone a concussion.” he said before walking off, waving dismissively in Tavros's direction, not even looking at him.  
The brownblood stood for in the middle of the street for a moment, trying to remember where he'd heard that voice before. _'A little deep but really soft…and commanding but still friendly, kind of like….'_ He audibly gasped before turning on his metallic heels and racing after the other troll. “Wait!”

It was _him_. The Preacher. He’d _found_ him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why, why do I always drag these things out? It's taken this three chapters to even remotely start, and I've barely begun. Oh well.
> 
> Thanks so much for all your Kudoses and comments, seriously! You will not believe how thrilled I was to see how well this was being taken.
> 
> Have some flowers. ✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

“Aw, shit.”

Karkat broke into a run as he heard the huge guy from before yell out to him. He had paranoia even before everything happened, as well as a few other unhealthy disorders, and now it was bad to the point where he was certain this half-man, half-brick wall had recognized him for ‘that guy who waged war on the government in front of the entire fucking _city_ like a fucking _idiot_ ’ and was out to get him.  
Well, he was half right.  
It was either patiently wait and ask the guy if he happened to intend to sell him to the System or perhaps just kill him right away, or run like hell. And Karkat had no intention to be caught yet, not before he could finish off some things.

His cheaply sneaker-clad feet skidded on the asphalt as Karkat made a sharp turn into an alleyway. He knew these streets like the creases of his horns, there was no way the guy could follow him. Someone that huge couldn’t be as fast as Karkat, either. This is what Karkat thought as thunderously loud footsteps sounded behind him before stopping abruptly, followed by a loud clang-thump-oof, and the same kid-like voice from before shouting something unintelligible. Turning back for a second, Karkat saw him lying face-first on the street, a dent in the wall where he had apparently crashed. Sharp turns were not his strong point, one would think.  
Karkat huffed out a little chuckle, but it turned into a choked squawk as the troll previously chasing him pushed up onto his elbows, mumbling 'ouch'.  
Karkat would recognize these huge racks anywhere. Not a lot of trolls had one-and-a-half-meter-long bull horns, after all.  
Well, _shit_.

 

As soon as Tavros had called out to the stranger to wait, he'd taken off. After a moment of hesitation at the obvious ignore, Tavros resumed running, his one bare metal foot clanging in each step. This would probably scrape it up, maybe even chip it, but at the moment Tavros didn't care. At the moment, he just needed to talk to the man. He was surprisingly fast for someone so short and stocky. He had the same hoodie on as last time, but was wearing black sweatpants and sneakers this time. That small amount of his body visible was enough to give Tavros the idea that this guy had muscle, and not from going to the gym.

The gray hoodie suddenly took a sharp turn to the left, running into some darker, more crooked path of the street. On instinct, Tavros turned as well, only realizing he couldn't maneuver his metal legs into something so delicate just yet when it was too late.  
The legs didn't turn in time, instead half-turning half-going on straight, making him crash with his face into a wall. His humongous horns took over then, slamming against the bricks on one side sending a large wave of pain through his skull, shaking him to the core, and making him tumble to the ground. So much for making a good first impression with his hero.  
Tavros stood up and prepared to continue running, but stopped into a walk when he saw the other troll just standing there, staring at him. Tavros eagerly walked over, weakly holding his horn until the pain subsided.

“Uh, hey. Um, sorry about the whole, well, chasing you thing. I-it’s just, er, you…you’re him, aren’t you, the-the Preacher, that is?”

The Preacher looked as if he hadn’t comprehended a word Tavros said, but stared at him in some humorous disbelief. He chuckled once, a hoarse sound compared to his normal, crooning one, and shook his head.

“Man, Tavros, you haven’t changed a bit. I mean, yeah, you grew a thousand fucking feet and look almost like the junior, less-creepy and sweaty version of Equius, but you still sound like a fucking stuttering high-school girl.”

Tavros stared at him in total wonder. How did that guy know his name? And he mentioned Equius? Come to think of it, he looked familiar in a way different from just the Preacher…  
The man sighed heavily.

“Okay, yeah, don’t recognize me or anything. You’d think I’d t least get a hello after three years, but no-o, I get called a preacher and star- what, WHAT are you- Wwhooof!” Karkat sputtered as Tavros suddenly swept the hood off his head, broke into a smile rivaling an excited kid's, and then swept him into a bear hug, squeezing all air out of him.

“Karkat! Wow, I can’t believe it, after all this time- and you’re him- oh wow, this, is just so amazing, that you’re here I mean!”

Karkat coughed and wheezed, weakly tapping Tavros on the arm to get him to notice the red hue Karkat’s face was taking from lack of air, but was ignored.

“That thing, that you, uh, did, it was amazing! And, uh, I would have done something if I had known, that it was you!” Finally Tavros let go, face shining like a ray of blissful sunshine, dropping Karkat onto the ground in a moment of forgetting height differences. Karkat stumbled and was caught by the shoulders by Tavros.

“Oh! Oh no, sorry, I forgot you’re really short!” Tavros stuttered and pulled Karkat into upright position. The latter glared daggers at the Taurus, not liking the jab at his height one bit.

“I’m not short, asshole, you’re a fucking tower is what’s wrong! Jeezus, what have you been eating, villages?” Tavros giggled, something that was slightly scary from such a big guy if you didn’t know him, and tugged at Karkat’s arm.

"Come on, we have to, uh, catch up! I live really nearby!”

 

A few squabbles, giggles and harmless insults later, the door to a very messy and cheap-looking apartment was being held open for Karkat. Inside, it was even worse. Karkat made out a living room slash kitchen, a tiny bathroom and a bedroom, but that was it. All of it was so small in size it made even Karkat feel uncomfortable.  
Tavros never had that much stuff, and he wasn’t a messy person by any standards, but his belongings still took up most of the space in the room.  
A single sofa that looked pillaged from a dumpster sat by a small wooden table, and a no other furniture was in there. The basic kitchen appliances -a sink, a cupboard, one drawer and a stove fit for the stone age- occupied the kitchen part of the room, and not a single speck of dirt was in sight.

“Wow, living like a king, huh Tavros?”

Karkat regretted his words immediately when the eager puppy look on Tavros’s face faded and was taken over by a sad half-smile. Man, past him was an idiot.

“Yeah, uh…I, guess I’m sorry this isn’t much, but, err, I kinda don’t have a lot, of money, since no one w-will hire me. Uh, metal legs, you know? Heh.” _‘Of course‘_ , Karkat thought, _‘he’s still looked at as a cripple…damn it, how did I forget that?’_

 __“Hey, don’t sweat it. My sorry excuse for a house isn’t any better, you know.”

Tavros brightened a bit, motioning for Karkat to sit on the sofa while he leaned against the kitchen counter.

“So, uh, have you been in contact with the others? I kind of, lost touch, I guess.”  
Karkat thought ruefully to the group he used to call his family. A bitter sense of regret filled his mind, but he willed it away. He was here, Tavros was here, that’s what mattered right now.  
“No. Sorry, I’m just as out of the loop as you are. Haven’t talked to anyone since…y’know.”  
Tavros nodded and bit his lip.  
“I talked to… G-Gamzee for a while on Pester, but, then everything happened…”

Tavros looked like he was going to say something, then decided against it, then decided on it again.  
“That was you, wasn’t it? The Preacher. That said all those things on the Hemospectrum ceremony, right?”  
Karkat’s inner seses went on high alert right away, ready to bolt or attack at a moment’s notice, but his conscience told him Tavros would never stoop as low as reporting him.

“What makes you say that?” Karkat asked back, testing to see how much Tavros knew.  
“You’re wearing the same hoodie. I can see the tear from the bullet.” Tavros deadpanned. Karkat mentally facepalmed. Oh yeah, that little detail. Well, it wasn’t Karkat’s fault he only had this one hoodie! It was his favorite clothing, too. When Karkat looked up from his lament, Tavros’s eager eyes were waiting for him.  
“So? It was you! Karkat, that’s, er, amazing! So what are you planing?” Karkat’s head snapped up. _Planning?  
_ “Oh no, no no no no, no. No. I’m not planning anything. I had a moment of madness ‘cause the System is fucking with us, but that’s it. No plans, Tavros. None of them.” Tavros deflated like a balloon with each word. He’d hoped so hard…  
“So…so you were just being rash, is that it? It was just a mistake?”  
Karkat felt like he was kicking a puppy, but someone had to set Tavros straight. “That’s right. I wasn’t thinking straight, okay? Let’s forget everything about my little rebellious act before I get fucking killed and move on with our lives.”  
Karkat stood up, fully intending to leave now (he could always come back, now that he knew where his friend lived. How had he not bumped into him earlier? ..Oh yeah, he avoided people.), but the subject was getting dangerously intimate and personal, and Karkat didn’t feel up to dealing with his own stupidity at the moment. He’d thought, maybe, if people just listened…but no, he was just being stupid.

“That’s not it!” Tavros slammed his hand on the counter, making Karkat jump. Looked like the little guy had grown some balls in these two years. “You were not just speaking a fleeting thought at a random moment! I could feel it, Karkat. You meant everything you said, and you’ve probably been thinking about it for months! I could feel it, and so could everyone else! They’ve given you a name! You gave so many people hope that someone out there actually had the guts, and now you’re going to abandon them?!” Tavros miraculously didn’t stutter or hesitate throughout his entire rant.

Karkat was fazed for a moment, but regained his composure after a second. “Don’t be stupid, Tavros! I acted like a fucking fool and nearly got myself killed, that’s all that happened! It’s not like I can drag heroism out of my asshole like a fucking handkerchief out of clown’s nose and suddenly be a hero! I’m one guy, man! One.”  
Tavros walked over to him, and Karkat automatically went into attack position.  
“That doesn’t mean anything! I know you want change, Karkat, we all do! Why stop now? You’ve taken the first step, and you said it yourself; if we won’t get rights, we’ll take them!"  
“Tavros, get your head out of the storybooks, all right?! I’m not some bearded religious guy in sandals that’s going to free the Jews! I’m just someone who was reckless! No one is going to stand for it!” Karkat shouted.  
“I am!” Tavros shouted back, his voice sounding much more mature than when he was speaking softly.  
“I believe you can do something, Karkat, because you already did! I’m ready to help you change things, and that’s at least a start, right?”  
Tavros almost begged, somehow being utterly harmless besides his towering height and intimidating horns.

Karkat would have pulled out some answer, and this argument could have escalated to even more dramatic heights than it was already, but both of them turned to the door when a knocking came, both of them high-strung and jumpy. Karkat and Tavros looked at each other, Tavros with question but Karkat with suspicion and distrust, before Karkat walked over to the door.  
After the three short, precise knocks, nothing was heard from the other side. Karkat hesitantly moved to the door, listening for any voices, but heard nothing. Sweat gathered on his forehead as he debated whether or not he should open. What if he’d been found out, if someone had followed him? But what if someone was just visiting Tavros?  
 Karkat turned to face Tavros.  
“ _You expecting someone?_ ” he half mouthed, half whispered. Tavros shook his head and raised his hands, looking just as concerned as Karkat. Both of their jaws dropped in utter shock as the knocker called to them.  
“I know you’re in there, both of you. Would you care to open? I’d rather not be spotted.”  
Tavros squeaked something unintelligible and Karkat rushed to the door, recognizing the familiar voice right away. He flung the door open, slamming it against the wall but who really gave a fuck, revealing the figure he hadn’t seen for six years.

“Aradia?!”  
“Hello, Karkat.”

 

ஜ۩۞۩ஜ

 

Karkat now found himself in a very strange arrangement.  
Like Tavros before, he was leaning on the counter opposed to the sofa, while Tavros was standing to the side. Aradia, a friend he hadn’t seen since she had been rendered emotionless and nearly killed by his best friend who then had a nervous breakdown, was sitting on the sofa, sipping tea from a cup decorated with little puppies in boxes. She seemed completely unconcerned with the fact her two childhood friends were staring at her with eyes as wide as saucers, waiting for her to speak. After three whole minutes of nothing but silence and the dainty sipping of tea, Karkat snapped.

“So?! Don’t bother telling us why the fuck you’re here or anything, you only disappeared for six years! None of us were worried or anything! Yeah, it’s totally normal for you to show up out of nowhere! God, I can’t even….!”  
Karkat drifted off, making wild gestures at Aradia to Tavros. Aradia stared at him for a moment, then took another sip without blinking even once.  
“Nothing? Seriously? Okay, clearly I’m in the wrong here. Sorry, this is me, being sorry. I’ll wait until you’re ready to explain.”  
Aradia put the cup on the saucer and placed it o the table.

“Sorry if I came unannounced, but I couldn’t really cal beforehand. I just escaped from Psionic recruits, you see, and am currently running away from Systema teams looking for me. I simply came here because I have been told that is what I should do, at this moment. You were speaking of rebelling against the system, weren’t you?”

Karkat’s jaw hung open, tiny noises coming out. Tavros wasn’t as visibly outraged, but looked around to see if there were any security cameras around. How else would she know all this?  
“Tha- yo- this is-” Karkat stammered, pointing at Aradia, the door, himself, Tavros, and anything else relevant to the discussion.  
“How. What. What is this.”  
Aradia would have giggled at this once, but now she just stared with cold eyes, not a twitch in her expression. “You are wondering whether taking action against the Systema Amicis was a good idea or not. You want to, but you’re scared of how it will end. I came here to tell you that you must do exactly what you want to do. It is essential for the future.”

Karkat’s brain appeared to be broken, so Tavros took it upon himself to speak.  
“I don’t, uh, think you’re doing a very good job, at explaining. Could you, maybe, tell us what you mean?” Aradia’s gaze shifted over to Tavros, but otherwise did not falter. “I can’t reveal any more information than that, because I do not have any. This is what I have been told to do, and now that I have fulfilled this role, it is up to you to take the next step.”  
“Wait, you’re not leaving again, are you?” Tavros asked hesitantly. Seeing her again after all this time really made Tavros feel he didn’t want her to disappear again.  
“No, I feel I should be with you in your rebellion. That isn’t even completely the voices talking, I think that is something I would have done before.”

Karkat finally got over his initial shock, and jumped off the counter.  
“Who says there’s going to be a rebellion? I never agreed to any of this shit, I’m not even sure what you’re talking about!” he yelled, crossing his arms in defiance.  
“But you will. Won’t you? This is something you’ve always wanted. Even if I hadn’t come here, if Tavros hadn’t met you again, you still would have fought against the Systema because that is what you feel the need to do.”  
Karkat opened his mouth to protest, but closed it again.

She was right. Everything was right. He had always thought about giving the System the finger, so why not now? Why, when the opportunity presented itself like steak on a silver platter with long-lost friends as seasoning, should he not jump at it like a ravenous wolf?  
Past Karkat was always an idiot, but he never found out until the decisions had been made.

 “It’s okay, Karkat! We’re, uh, with you! Right, Aradia?” Tavros happily exclaimed, turning to Aradia, who nodded.  
“I’ll do what I can for support, and I think I may know where we can find a few others as well.”

Karkat couldn’t withhold a smile. A grim and mean one, but this was Karkat, so it counted for something. He had two comrades now, that was more than a lot of people could say. And if he didn’t make it, then at least he could say he tried, even if it did fail spectacularly. Besides, what did he have to lose? They’d already taken his chances of life.

“Okay. Yeah. Why the flying fuck not? Let’s fuck shit up!”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I type like a monkey and therefore my left hand is cramping. 
> 
> So the actual story is starting now, not just preludes and boring shit. Sorry it took so long, but there won't be much happening just yet.

Not that they had a plan or anything. 

Basically, what happened was they agreed on doing whatever they could to mess with the government, but that was all they had. Aradia had mentioned something about “other associates” that would eventually join them. Of course the details were shady at best and she refused to clarify anything, as was Aradia’s way, but if they’d learned anything throughout the times, it was that if Aradia said it would happen, it would happen. This resulted in her never being 100% on anything in the past, always saying “I think” and “maybe, so if she said “definitely”, you’d know she meant definitely. 

In any case, she’d told them to go to one of the smaller, older neighborhoods, the ones that had street vendors selling roasted nuts and meat on a stick and crazy old ladies feeding the birds in the middle of the street. Little kids with bare, dirty feet scampered around playing with sticks and stones and whatever objects they had or found lying around, and there was at least one dog per home.  
Karkat was not used to interacting with people much, or at all. Ever since he lost his close group of friends, he’d stuck almost completely to himself, staying in his small cabin and hiding his face whenever he went out. The night or shadows of the murky streets were his best friend, and small crowds his worst enemy. Big crowds were less of a problem, they were more uncomfortable but you were less likely to be spotted. Of course he’d been almost the same before everyone as separated, but that was totally beside the point.  
He’d swallow his paranoia and social fear this once, though, since he at least had Tavros with him. Aradia hadn’t come with, instead going out to ‘lay low’ for a while. She’d resisted recruit for the Psionic base, rendering five guards immobilized and more of them enraged and out for vengeance, and now resided in an empty room in a tavern outside of town. The landlady there thought the room was haunted, and never rented it out or went inside because of that. Food disappearing and eerily glowing figures didn’t help her superstition much. 

Karkat and Tavros awkwardly stood on a curb, watching a group of kids toss a bone between them, a dog in the middle chasing back and forth. Tavros was smiling sweetly at the sight, Karkat was scowling and wished the dog would just attack one of the kids already so that they would leave crying and render them in some silence. Karkat hated a lot of things, _surprisingly enough_ , but loud obnoxious noises were definitely on the top 100 list. 

“Why are we even standing here? We’re on the direct corner of the two busiest streets, what could possibly be so important here other than snot-nosed little bastards not caring their life sucks?” Karkat angrily huffed, blowing a few strands of hair out of his face. He’d switched outfits, his best hoodie was now too easily recognized, and he felt exceedingly uncomfortable in a T-shirt over a long-sleeved one. It hid enough of his arms, sure, but it did nothing for his nubby little horns and he felt way too exposed. “Well, Aradia said to be around this area today, so I guess we should just do that. It isn’t so bad, is it? I mean, the weather’s nice.” 

Karkat found that Tavros didn’t stutter as long as he was comfortable. Apparently, he was comfortable enough with Karkat that he didn’t mess up one word of his speaking. Karkat felt slightly proud of this.  
“So. We might as well make annoying fucking small talk while we wait for the gods to heed Aradia’s oh-so-holy call. What’ve you been up to for the past four years?”    
Tavros hesitated, taking a breath and holding it. “Well…after we had that…y’know, last, uh, argument. The big one.”  
Karkat’s frown deepened, remembering the event well. They’d all said things they regretted…him especially.  
“I kind of didn’t have, anything to do, after that. It sounds sad, because it _is_ sad. I, uh…didn’t really have any other friends, and mom was dead of course, so…” It was unusual for Brownbloods to live past thirty-something, but Tavros’s mother had been exceptionally early in departing. Tavros was just a kid at the time, almost a baby really, and had been partly taken care of by the owner of the stables his mom had worked at. Later he started working there too, spending time with the animals he loved so much, but the farmer, nice as he was, couldn’t have him after his ‘accident’.  
 “I kind of just…went home, did a little work here, and there…and just did nothing. It sucked. Big time.” He laughed somewhat sadly. “I guess I really don’t have a life, outside of my friends, huh?”  
Karkat didn’t know what to say to that, so he didn’t say anything and they were plunged into an awkward silence. It was sad, but true. Karkat hadn’t thought much of how the breakup of the clique would affect the others at the time. Past him was a selfish bastard who only cared about himself and his own pride. A couple of weeks later, though, once he’d gotten over his self-pity wallow, he’d wondered how the others were doing. And sometimes, he wouldn’t lie, he missed them. Especially Terezi, Sollux, and Kanaya. They were all like family, really, and so were everyone else. Not fixing things was the worst decision he’d ever made. But now was the time to fix that, even if it did mean making things even more awkward. 

“Listen, Tavros…sorry about everything I said back there. Before. I was a grade-A douche, and I probably still am. In fact, you probably shouldn’t even be around me, my douchebaggery might infect you ad turn you into some bitter, bitchy old -ow! The hell…?”  
Karkat rubbed his shoulder where Tavros had painfully clucked him, probably not realizing his strength any more than before. He was smiling, though, somewhat apologetically after the punch, and his voice wasn’t as sad when he said  
“I know. You didn’t mean any of it, you were just, angry, uh, more so than usually. It’s okay.” At Karkat’s skeptical raise of an eyebrow he added “Really. I’m sorry too, ok?” Karkat huffed.  
“Yeah, okay. It’s all in the past, right? Forgive and forget…”  
“Hakuna Matata.” Tavros playfully added, referring to one of the few things they had in common; a love for cartoons that should shame every teenager.  
Karkat’s excuse was the romance, _Can you feel the love tonight_ was practically THE love song of movies, and Tavros just loved childish things, from fairy tales to cartoons. The silence settling this time was much more comfortable, though Karkat felt like he’d been let off the hook too easily. Nasty words had been let fly…  
Once again, the universe decided not to let him finish his train of thoughts as a kid ran into him, knocking him over and landing on top of him. That took some skill, or a lot of luck, or both.  
The little girl might a light oof sound at compact, a head of black tangles knocked into Karkat’s stomach and they were down. Karkat coughed from getting head butted in the stomach, while the kid half-rose, never mind the fact that she was straddling Karkat, and dusted off her jacket. Before Karkat could even look at her, he heard a loud, girly gasp of shock and then the black tangles were back, only this time under his nose. Small arms with the softness and plump of youth on them wrapped around his neck, and an overly high-pitched voice shouted in his ear.  
“Karkitty!” 

Karkat winced at the familiar nickname. He couldn’t help but hug Nepeta back, though, even if only slightly. She was nuzzling his shoulder, for God’s sake, who could be an asshole to that?  
“Nepeta? The hell are you doing here?”  
Nepeta giggled and finally scooted off of the awkward position on Karkat, to his relief. She’d grown, he noticed. Her hair was longer while still curling almost the same way, but her horns were much larger, no longer just peeking out of her mane of hair but proudly protruding from her head. Even though she was now technically a woman, twenty years old and two years younger than Karkat, she still had the child like glow about her that had been there in the past. Her oversized green jacket had grown on her, finally, and her blue hat had probably ceased fitting after the growth of her horns. Instead she wore an army-green cap, matching her knee-long poofy pants. “I just got to the city, literally! Here I was, running around like a blind kitten, and who do I bump into but Karkitty! Oh!” she jumped up, bouncing like a rubber ball.  
“And Tabby, too! Boy, I haven’t seen you in furever!” T  
avros, unlike Karkat, smiled at the old nickname, a courtesy of her obsession with cats, and picked her up as she pounced on him.  
“Man, you’re so big! You sure have grown since you were that short little chub, haven’t ya?”  
Karkat thanked the gods Nepeta was at least smaller than him, reaching him to just above his chin. She only reached Tavros up to his chest, but it didn’t seem to faze her. “Are the others here too? Oh, I pawsetively can’t wait to see everyone!”  
Nepeta bounced on her heels, her eyes glinting in excitement. __  
‘Oh yeah, she and Equius left before everything blew up…’  
Karkat thought, hating having to be the one to tell her their friends were gone.  
Nepeta could almost sense something was amiss. Well, it didn’t take her feline senses to see Tavros awkwardly shift and look away and Karkat’s face go grim. But now was not the time for that! She’d just reunited with her two best friends, and it was time to celebrate!  
“Never mind that, fur now we should catch up! There’s a great place nearby where we can eat, c’mon!”  
Nepeta tugged at both their hands, dragging them across the street, and both the male trolls were glad for the momentary distraction. 

  


“Uh, Nepeta…”  
“Yes, Tabby? Is there a purrroblem?”  
 The tiny troll made a purring sound as she looked at Tavros, a fish tail sticking out from her mouth, nothing but innocence.  
 “It’s just that, uh….this is a fish market.”  


The three trolls were standing by a booth reeking of the salty, pestering smell of fish, where a thick, burly troll with stubble was glaring at them. Nepeta was tearing into raw fish, skin, bones and all. She saw no problem with this, but people passing buy shot her sometimes almost frightened looks.  
“I know! Isn’t it great?”  
“Wait a second, I thought you said you’d just arrived. How the fuck did you know there was a fish vendor here?”  
Karkat asked, pointing accusingly at Nepeta.  
“I smelled it, of course!” Nepeta retorted, tapping her slightly upturned nose and grinning. “The great lioness can smell fish in a mile’s radius!” They walked around for a bit, none of them familiar with this part of town, and Nepeta not with the town in general. After much nonsense chatting and walking some bullshit route, they simply got tired of walking around, and after Tavros accidentally mused out loud how he’d need to get repairs on his leg soon, Nepeta insisted they’d sit down right on the spot. She literally dropped down where she was standing and patter the ground next to her expectantly, motioning for them to sit down too. Not a lot of people were around, so sitting on the middle of the sidewalk was perfectly fine.  
Nepeta had finally finished her fish, quickly, cleanly and a bit creepily (“what did you do with the bones?” “what bones?”).  
Finally they just sat there, Karkat skulking with his back to a wall and his arms on his knees, and Tavros sitting with his legs outstretched, the metal gleaming in the rare sun. Nepeta was lying on her stomach, stretching to at least two times her usual size, and Karkat could have sworn he heard purring. If she still wore the tail that came with the cat-hat, it would have been magically swishing.  
“So, Nepeta.”  
Tavros started, leaning back on his hands to get a better look at her.  
“I thought you’d gone with Equius to…wherever Eridan planned on going? He never said.”  
Nepeta faltered, her content Cheshire cat grin wilting like a flower in time-lapse and her eyes casting down.  
“I did. We went to the Capitol, Lowas. Eridan wanted to move there because he could… I don’t meow, something about his royal blood and being closer to the sea. I think it’s also ‘cause Feffers lives there. I didn’t get it, and I don’t think Equius did either.”  
She folded her hands, propping her head up on her elbows. Her cheeks squished up, making her look pouty.  
“He was always doing some skulking, like he mew some big secret and we weren’t let in on it. It had something to do with the Hemospectrum, though. And then…”  
Karkat and Tavros were startled to see tears in her eyes.  
“I heard them say something about how we’d have the Hemospectrum rules again. But that means everyone below green will have pawsetively pawful lives! And that’s just not right!”  
She sniffed and wiped at her eyes. “I love Equius, I do. But it’s not right, it just isn’t.”  
Tavros scooted over and awkwardly patted her on the back, but she noticed the gesture and knew the meaning behind it. She sat up, rubbing away the remains of her sadness. “It’s fine. It’s purrrobably better this way, but anyway! You have to tell me what happened to everyone else!”  
Now it was their time to hesitate. Tavros was about to start the uncomfortable and awkward explaining, ripping the scab of the painful memory, but Karkat stopped him with a hand gesture. He felt it was his spot to explain.  
“Basically, what happened was we had a fight. A big one. Aradia went rogue on us, as you know, so me, Terezi, Sollux, Gamzee, Tavros, Vriska and Kanaya were left. Everyone just vented on the nearest person, and since we all happened to be at the same place, that was everyone.” 

_And where the fuck were you when everything got fucked up, huh? Where were you, oh mighty leader?!_

Karkat shook the echoes of past times out of his head, now was not the time to reflect on heated insults.  
“Bottom point, we stormed off into different directions and never met again. The end. Whoop-de-do.”  
He tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice, honestly, but it was still practically dripping with metaphorical bitterness.  
 “Oh dear, that‘s not good. That's not good at all…”  
Nepeta looked worried. She always did like friendship and goodwill among men as much as she liked a nice belly rub, much like Feferi. Minus the belly rubs. Maybe their gang had just fallen apart when the two funballs left them. They were a morbid bunch of kids back then.  
“No fucking shit.” Karkat listlessly chuckled. “It wasn’t good, it was a clusterfuck of failure and…bad. Which is the opposite of good. I use opposites so you can see what I mean.”  
“Well, can’t we just find them and ask them if they want to be furriends again? I mean, you and Tabby did, right?”  
Nepeta innocently asked. She’d always be like that, not getting why people couldn’t just be pals. It was way easier than holding a grudge, after all. Tavros smiled indulgently, “It wasn’t…quite like that, no.” and Karkat scoffed, but that only served to annoy Nepeta.  
“I’m serious! Don’t think I don’t remember how close we used to be. I’m sure they’d be willing to make up as long as you are!” She hung her head sadly. “I know I missed all of you guys, and I’m sure everyone else feels the same.”  
 “Nepeta, it’s…you weren’t there, okay? It’s complicated.”  
“Is not! I know you had a fight, what more do I need? This is exactly what’s tearing this country apurrt, nobody is willing to just team up and work together!”  
 Karkat looked at Tavros at the same time Tavros looked at him. A silent trade of questions and answers passed between them, until an agreement was made.  
Partially, anyway, since Karkat meant ‘no’ and Tavros meant ‘yes’. They just weren’t on the same wavelength.  
“Nepeta, there’s something we didn’t tell you.”  
Oh well, too late for that now. 

As the story of how Karkat had been the first to stand up for the people in a year unfolded, how he’d eventually met Tavros (and how Tavros had saved Karkat with the magical and brave throw of a shoe, which Karkat thanked him for after finding out), Aradia’s bizarre entrance, the understanding they’d reached and their plans -which were none- Nepeta got more ecstatic with each word, her eyes widening and her mouth dropping further and further until she looked comically shocked.  
“So we’re planning on rebelling against the System. If you wanna help….”  
Nepeta slammed her hands on the ground. “What?!” 

  
_‘I knew it, of course she’s not on board, Tavros you absolute idiot, you practically killed us all!’  
‘Oh no, I was so sure she’d be on our side! She’s always been so eager to help people when they need it…’ _

__  
Karkat quickly retreated. “If you don’t, that’s fine, shit, I know it’s way too risky and ille-”  
"Stop! No! Double no! You stupid jerk, of course I want to help! I’m being outraged over you not telling me sooner!”  
Karkat pokerfaced. Okay, so he hadn’t been expecting that.  
“This is great! We just have to find the others, and then we can start!”  
“Whoa, wait, others? What others?”  
Nepeta blinked. “Everyone else, of course. Don’t even argue, Karkitty, I know you’re dying to meet them.” Karkat didn’t bother arguing with that. He never had been all that good at hiding his feelings, especially when they were strong. He wanted to meet everyone. Fixing the country with them was the best possible outcome this escapade could have.  
“How, though? We have no idea where anyone is, and it’s not like we can message them on Trollian.”  
Nepeta suddenly stood up, dusting off her pants. “It’ll all be fine. Just fine!”  
An evil grin settled on her face, much more creepy now than it was years ago. Cats, for all their cuteness and fluff, could be exceedingly scary. “Right now, the mighty lioness feels like going hunting.”  
And away went the creepiness. Roleplay was never to be taken seriously.

  


A policeman calmly strutted down the street. From his respectable hat stood short, completely straight horns, and his respectable hair was slicked back with gel. His respectable name didn’t matter, because he was a man of law and serving the System. That meant he cleaned up the streets, stuffed hooligans in jail, and made the city a better place. This anonymous person that had started a riot earlier didn’t sit right in him at all. He hoped to be the one to get him, show him that things didn’t work that way in his city. There were rules here.  
A grey hoodie marched past him as if it didn’t have a care in the world, and the officer’s stomach twisted in wonder. The height was right, and he looked very suspicious, slouching like that. Dashing, the officer grabbed the troll’s shoulder, spinning him around to face him. It was a kid. Just a normal, run-of-the-mill teenaged troll with a bruised lip and a startled expression. The officer growled, annoyed that his catch wasn’t the catch of the day, or even the entire year, and harshly addressed the young troll. “Are you not aware that impersonating someone else is a chargeable offense?”  
The teenager stuttered, frowning in confusion.  
“I wasn’t impersonating anyone, I was just walking here! Uh. S-sir.” he added hastily when the officer flashed him his gun.  
 “Lying to an officer is also a chargeable offense. Clearly you were impersonating that scumbag rebel, and therefore are also stating oppose to the Systema Amicis. That’s three strikes, and means you either pay the fine or go to jail. Which will it be, ruffian?” The law said so, after all. Even if the officer found it questionable.  
The young troll stammered and sputtered, outraged but terrified to speak. “I wasn’t impersonating anyone, honest! I just like this sweater is all, it’s warm!” The policeman scowled. “Resisting arrest, are we?”  
“No, please, I can’t pay you anything, I don’t even have a job!”  
The older troll made a move to grab the teenager, but was stopped by an unknown force colliding with his head, sending something very cold all over him. The kid took the chance and ran away, ducking into a side street as the officer tried to wipe away the muck covering his face. Once he managed to clean out one eye, he saw red. Literally, his hand and face were covered with candy red paint, smelling of mildly toxic fumes. He glared around to see who had committed the crime, his pulse beating vigorously in rage, but saw nothing. The fumes made him dizzy, so he hurried into the next bar, braving the disgusting public toilets instead of having red sin his costume. Before he made it very far, the teenager from before had snuck back and, seeing the policeman still vulnerable, tapped his hat off before running in the opposite direction. A small act of defiance, but a bug step none the less. 

Behind a nearby car, three young adults were almost choking from holding their laughter in. As Karkat gave them the thumbs-up of safety when the policeman was gone, they burst into rich laughter. Tavros held his stomach in, delightful pain racking it, and Nepeta rolled around on the ground wiggling her legs, laughing that strange, cat-like laughter like she did. Karkat was laughing too, harder than he had in years, swearing in between strokes.  
“Oh god- fuck I can’t- shit-” and then it was mad laughter again.  
When the laughter died down to giggles, Tavros wiped tears form his eyes and Karkat shook his head. “I don’t know how this helped our cause, but fucking. Worth it.” Nepeta sighed, catching her breath. “Who says being bad can’t be fun?”  
 Tavros's snort broke the ice, and they were laughing again, more peacefully but just as happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, as for the SolKat....  
> I was thinking about just having a lot of interaction and bromance/feelings and stuff, maybe leading to actual romance, but not right away.  
> Would those of you reading be okay with that?
> 
> EDIT: Oh, and do you think chapter length matters? Because I tend to try and make it long, because so many fics on here are.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AUUUUUGH I'M SORRY THIS CHAPTER IS SO SHITTASTIC. I hate it so much I could tear it to pieces if it wasn't a laptop screen and not a wad of paper. It took me forever and I just dislike it. ;_; Sorry.  
> If you're still reading, may you have all my thanks.

A few days passed like that.

Since Nepeta didn’t have a place to live, she’d gotten a part-time job to earn money for a rented room. Tavros had offered her to stay at his house, but Nepeta politely declined, saying she needed to earn her keep.   
Besides, Karkat thought, it wouldn’t have worked out. Tavros himself could barely sleep in his apartment, never mind have a guest live there for an extended period.   
Finding a job was shockingly easy for Nepeta. Not only was she nice, likeable and with semi-good blood, but she was tough and hard-working and had a few skills that could be put to a very good use.   
That’s how she landed a job delivering mail and small orders throughout the town.   
She adored the uniform, a white polo shirt and blue shorts, and although it was mostly a formality and she didn’t have any requirements to wear it, she flaunted it with pride. She even got paid pretty well for such a small job, mostly because she was their star employee after only four days of working.   
Her deliveries were swift and always in pristine condition, her secret? She traveled on the rooftops.   
After all, what decent cat couldn’t climb their way onto someone’s beacon?    
Once she’d saved up a bit, she rented the very room Aradia had taken refugee in.   
The price was greatly reduced because of the supposed haunting, so everything worked out in her favor. She and Aradia now shared a room, which wasn’t much of a problem since Aradia didn’t sleep much and Nepeta could sleep anywhere and at any time.   
Of course Nepeta was now known as a ghost whisperer, but that was just a part of the fun.   
As for their campaign of ‘fucking shit up’, it mostly consisted of pissing police officers off when they had the chance. There wasn’t much they could do yet, with their limited manpower and with everyone still on the lookout for the Preacher (“Why fucking Preacher? Do I look like some religious fuck in a cape? Goddamn people are idiots, shit!”) .

They soon had other things to think about, anyway.

 

 

**BLOOD REPORT**

 

All trolls are to report to the administration house

Bloods will be given roles according to colour

 

Tomorrow morning, at precisely 1300 hours, a bus will arrive to your home to escort you to the Main House. 

There you shall receive a job and a new home complete with furniture and clothes, all fitting to your blood flock. 

All trolls who do not make an appearance will be fined accordingly.

 

Resistance will not be tolerated, and officers will be armed.

Thank you for your cooperation

 

Systema Amicis

 

Every house received a letter, regardless of choice.   
If the person wasn’t home, they would go to his or her work place or their relative’s homes, and make certain they got it. There was obvious blunt force in the sentence “resistance will not be tolerated”. News had spread about the young, rebellious troll who had been as bold as to refuse to give up his home in the mainland, and couldn’t walk afterwards.   
Of course, he’d only fallen down some stairs. The System would never allow bad rumors to spread, regardless of how true they were.

Not a lot of time was given, either. Every troll had about 19 hours to get ready to either leave their current home forever, and move to either a shack in the worst neighborhood or a palace in the midst of the city, all dependin on the hue of their blood.

A few lucky ones would remain in their homes, if they were a green or lighter blue blood. Tavros’s stomach tied itself into a tight knot when he read the formal letter, making himself take a deliberately slow breath in order to calm down.

He was a rustblood of the lower kind.

He would be taken from his home, given a worse and shabbier home, or maybe he’d even live with another higher set family as their slave.   
He’d be allowed to wear only his colour, simple clothes to show his low status and pitiable worth in life.   
His already short lifespan would be cut even shorter by dangerous and hard labour.   
Or maybe…because of his ‘disability’ that was actually more of an Ability with no dis since it gave him certain advances compared to other trolls, he’d just be culled. J  
ust gotten rid of, since no one could make use of a timid bull with metallic legs, put down like a race horse with a broken leg.

Tavros tottered over to his small couch, on the metallic legs he couldn’t bring himself to hate, or even dislike, not after all the things they’d done for him, and put his head in his hands.   
The fluffy tendrils of a Mohawk weaved around his fingers as he knotted them in the thick mass, just hard enough to give some reassurance. Deep and painfully slow breaths, once, twice, thrice, and Tavros opened his eyes.   
Maybe there was a good side to this?   
He always tried to be optimistic, even when he felt like flipping tables and smashing cups.

  
Like when he could never get places without his horns restricting him, but hey, they were pretty handy sometimes.   
Or when he got crippled, but hey, he had friends that were willing to help him out.   
Or when they all split up, but hey, he still talked to Gamzee every once in a while.

He was going to be forced into slavery, but hey…well, at least Aradia was safe. And psionics didn’t do too bad, did they, so wherever Sollux was he’d probably be okay as well.   
That was all the lowbloods he knew encountered for, and he did feel better for a second.   
But then reality came crashing back and he felt as desolate as ever.

 

 

In his own private, unwelcoming house, Karkat was having trouble as well, of the same kind yet a bit different. He wouldn’t be turned into a slave, nor would he be moved to a palace. He’d be killed. Simple as that. He’d be found out, people would gasp and fetch a weapon as fast as they could, no matter if it was a gun or a hammer, and he’d be killed and done with and probably dumped into a garbage press.   
Bright red blood was not tolerated even before the System, and it would not be tolerated now.

He stalked around the small vicinity of his house, taking out his frustration on his hair, his hands, his clothes, anything really.   
Walking around paced him, but he wouldn’t voluntarily go outside at this time.   
They could be watching.   
There was no getting out of a blood check, he knew. You’d be hunted down under the cover of non-threatening “it’s for the records, you see” nonchalant friendliness, but in reality you were a stray dog that was trying to get away from the pound.   
There was one possible escape: a drug, some weird chemical that could change the colour of your blood for up to three hours, but it was expensive as hell, even Highbloods had a lot of trouble getting it.

Step, step, step, turn, claw at scalp in frustration, curse, step, step, step, repeat.

Karkat also had another problem.   
What would he tell his newfound comrades?   
Nobody wanted to give their blood, especially not the lesser bloods, but they might want to know what Karkat’s colour was if they found out how hard he was trying to figure out a way to stay anonymous.   
Or they might find out somehow; if the guards came to his house to hunt him down, somehow having seen the monstrosity that was his blood, they’d be witnesses.   
They’d see him and his life-fluids, so unnaturally vivid, too strong for the Hemospectrum, too unique for the world today, and they’d feel betrayed, feel stupid for having been lead by someone so disgusting.   
They’d hate him, and the icon he was slowly becoming, and the revolution would die.   
Nothing would change, and everyone would continue to live in misery.   
 A big part of why Karkat was trying to set off a bomb of change was his own blood.   
He was just so, so tired of having every muscle tense when he went out, letting himself be walked over so he wouldn’t get in a fight that might or might not lead to bloodshed.   
He couldn’t blush, couldn’t cry, couldn’t run around as a kid getting scraped knees and booboos, because there was always the what-if of someone seeing his blood.   
One glance, one small gander at the red and his life would be over in the blink of an eye.   
He’d long given up the hope of finding someone ‘special’ like the movies foretold, because that kind of relationship required trust and safety, neither of which Karkat could give.   
And of course, now, the chances were halved due to the bizarrely unfair law of only opposite sexes mating.   
It was like the old days all over again, where equality meant you had to follow everyone else’s lead or you’d die.

For a while, he’d felt pretty good in his company of friends, even if the danger might even be more there with the bloodcolour-obsessed pervert with a horse fetish and the royal dickhead who hated everything that didn’t have gills.   
But it was nice, it felt safe.   
He could even allow himself to be angry, then, the one emotion that didn’t reveal much blood…at least not when it had been practiced as much as it had in Karkat’s case. He’d thought of coming out clean to his current friends.   
He thought about telling someone all the time, but the bad side of that coin toss was significantly heavier than the good one, and logically speaking, it wasn’t worth the risk.

Karkat knew he was making excuses.

Stupid asshole coward.

 

 

They’d decided to meet up at Karkat’s house, since it was the most secure and remote place they had access to at the moment.

  
Tavros and Nepeta had dreamed of having a secret base, just like in the supertroll movies. Complete with a Minibar and an elevator and a hidden entrance, maybe even a butler.   
There were practically stars in their eyes as they discussed back and forth how awesome it would be, acting exactly like the kids they were at heart.   
Secretly, Karkat thought the same.   
For now, though, his shabby house would have to do.

Aradia was the first to arrive, as always. She didn’t even have to knock, Karkat had opened the door and was about to step outside to throw the trash out and when he wrenched the door open she was just standing there, not even blinking when karkat jumped out of his skin and splattered remains of trash all over himself.

“GYASHFUCK! Aradia!”

For some reason, Aradia’s undeterred expression just made things more embarrassing.   
Karkat made a show of picking pieces of half-wert paper out of his hair to hide his face.

“Surprise me out of fucking nowhere, why don’t you? I’m totally comfortable with that.”

Aradia floated inside. “That’s good to know I guess.”   
 Karkat just sighed and shut the door. His superior sarcasm was wasted on that girl.   
As Karkat leaned on the wall and Aradia just hovered above the ground -Karkat was glad Sollux had never taken up the habit to float everywhere- an awkward silence stretched out from long seconds into long minutes.   
Even if Karkat was tapping his fingers on his elbow and sighing and looking at everything, Aradia didn’t seem to be feeling awkward, so Karkat abandoned all thought of starting a conversation.   
It probably would have been even more awkward, anyway.   
Lord knew it had happened before.   
Karkat held back a curse-filled huff of gratitude when petite but loud, erratic knocking sounded on his door.

Only one person knocked like that, and before Karkat had even touched the door she flung it open, getting dragged along with it a step or two before regaining her balance with a jump.

“The mighty lion purrrrrrrrincess announces her arrival as she enters her furiend’s hive!”   
The R’s were extra rolling and cat-like, signaling to anyone who hadn’t seen her glowing face that she was in a fantastic mood.

“I thought you were cat or something?” Karkat asked as he moved to sit on a chair.   
Thing were way more relaxed with Nepeta around, as ironic as that statement was.

“It’s roleplaying, Karkitty, I can be whatever I want! Fur example;” she bent her back backwards in an attempt to straighten it, put on a snooty face and tilted her chin upwards. “Nowuwuh I’m Eridan Ampurra, a noble sea duwuweller. All fear my quadrant adwuances.” She exaggerated Eridan’s wavy accent to a point where it was incoherent, mixing her cat puns in the speech as well.   
“Oh, wait, I forgot the butt-chin!” She exclaimed, then squeezed the skin on her little round chin together to make a fold.

Karkat sputtered a snort before he could help himself, huffing out a couple of laughs before trying to regain his scowl to little advance.   
Nepeta looked like the cat that got the canary, overjoyed she’d made someone laugh.   
Karkat returned the smile, only slightly. Hell, if now wasn’t the time to let your guard down, when was?

Apparently, Karkat had forgotten how life liked to make him miserable, and it certainly didn’t like him being happy.   
A hesitant knock interrupted them, and as Nepeta leaped over a small table to open the door revealing a forlorn-looking Tavros, Karkat’s scowl settled in for real.

“Hey, uh, guys.” Tavros shuffled in awkwardly, dusting off his metal feet on a rugged old doormat. Tavros was apparently Monkey Bars as of now, and Nepeta dangled from his shoulders like a self-sticking backpack.   
“Hello, Tabby-cat! Are you feeling furrrrrrrrresh?”   
 Tavros smiled and crouched to let her drop off, but the smile didn’t last for long and soon he was looking timid again.

“Actually, I’m kind of, not good. I can’t stop for long, uh….” Nepeta frowned and positioned herself in front of Tavros. Karkat had stood up as well and walked over to them. “Aw, but Tabby! You just got here, and you haven’t let me ride your shoulders. Do you know how hard it is to be this tiny?”   
“Maybe, you could get Aradia to levitate you? If she’s wants to, that is.”   
Nepeta gasped and bounded over to Aradia.   
“Why didn’t I think of that! Pawradia, can you?”   
Aradia looked at her blankly, “I don’t see why not.” and soon Nepeta was soaring through the room, instructing Aradia to “Go there!” or “more left!”.

Karkat leaned over to Tavros, not facing him but tilting his head as to be better heard.   
“Is something up? You look like you accidentally killed your baby hamster.”   
Tavros nodded and bit down on his cheek, before leaning down -way down- to whisper to Karkat.   
“It’s the, uh, blood gathering. I am, most definitely, going to be on the s-slave auction. I have to leave soon, if I‘m going to pack.”

Karkat blanched. How had he forgotten about Tavros being a lowblood? Was he really so self-absorbed he forgot his friends were in the line of fire too?

“…So. Uh. I guess…I’ll just go? Then?”   
Tavros pointed at the door, already moving his large legs to leave.   
 “No, wait!”   
 Before Karkat realized what he had started, the cheers of joy from Nepeta stopped abruptly and Aradia seemed to sense enough to let her down without anyone telling her to.   
“What’s the matter? You’re leaving pawlready?” She addressed Tavros, nothing but cheerful innocence.   
 “I, uh, I have, to go, if I want to make it in time…” Nepeta tilted her head. “You have somewhere to be? Well, why don’t you just say so?”   
Karkat sighed. “Nepeta, didn’t you get the blood gathering letter?   
“The what meow? Meowbe I did, I haven’t been home since yestertail. Busy meowl schedule.”   
Nepeta’s face was losing its happy glow quickly, and it was replaced by apprehensiveness. “Why? What’s that?”   
Karkat sighed. Nepeta was more openly passionate about her hatred for the hemospectrum, and he worried what reaction the news would get out of her. She was relatively safe, as a greenblood, and she might even get to keep her rented room since it was pretty much fit for her position. On the other hand, Aradia, Tavros and especially Karkat himself were in deep trouble.   
“Everyone’s supposed to report to the Main House to get jobs and houses and shit fit for their blood. We’re all probably due tomorrow.” If Nepeta’s horns were the cat ears they looked like, the would have flattened down at this point.   
“Wait…but Pawradia and Tabby are rustbloods! That means…!”   
Tavros nodded ruefully, while Aradia remained expressionless. Apparently she still had the need to explain. “I won’t be in any danger. I’m supposedly dead.”

A small silence raged before everyone breathed a sigh of relief. “Right, you’re supposed to be a ghost or whatever now, right?” Karkat asked rhetorically, relaxing only a fraction before tensing up again. All eyes were now directed at Tavros, who tried to look relieved but was betrayed by his obvious emotions.   
“That’s, uh, w-wonderful, Aradia. I mean, you’re, pretty much in a, uh, safe-zone, r-right?”   
 Nepeta suddenly stomped, making the guys jump a little. She wasn’t like an overgrown little kid anymore, her child-like air had evaporated and she seemed so much mature, and much more grown.   
“This isn’t fair! Tabby, they can’t just claim you like that, it shouldn’t work like this! Any baby with a damn brain could tell you that!” When Nepeta swore, it was as rare as Tavros shouting or Karkat being shy. It didn’t happen for just no reason.

“Pawradia, can’t he stay with us? Or with Karkitty?” she desperately asked, looking back and forth between everyone.   
Tavros shook his hands and head furiously, “No no no! If I try to h-hide, it’ll just make things, uh, worse. You’d be k-killed! We can’t risk that.”   
“Well, we can’t just not do anything!” Nepeta yelled, knitting her eyebrows.

“Tavros, you can’t actually be fucking fine with this?” Karkat added right after, staring at the Taurus with incredibility. Tavros averted his eyes.   
“I knew this would, happen, so uh, there’s nothing I can do, and no reason, to, uh, g-gripe about it.” He recited, as if he knew the lines by heart. Karkat wondered if he’d been telling himself that, over and over, ever since he got the letter.   
Nepeta twirled towards Aradia, who was still hovering outside of the conversation, making her hair and coat swirl dramatically.   
“Aradia! Do you have any ideas? There has to be something!” Aradia rotated slowly to look at Nepeta. “I don’t really care, either way.” Nepeta looked absolutely flabbergasted at that. Her mouth literally dropped open, displaying all her small, baby-like teeth.   
 “ _What?_ You- he-”

Sensing a feud coming on, Karkat stepped between them.   
“Nepeta, calm the fuck down. We’re going to do something, okay? We’ll…we’ll figure something out."  

“Not that, it wouldn’t be, uh, super rad, if you managed to figure something out, but, they'll be coming soon. So. There’s not much time.”

 

ஜ۩۞۩ஜ

 

Tavros had gone back to his place, after a bit more panicking and useless brainstorming.   
If he wasn’t home when they came to collect him, things would only get worse. They might trace his tracks to Karkat’s place, and they’d all be in trouble.

 

Nepeta had to go home as well, eventually.  
She dreaded to read the letter and find out when they’d be coming to her, and she was tempted to run.   
Just run away into the forest, live in the wild, anything to escape this wretched community. Even if she wouldn’t be off that bad, she didn’t want to be a part of anything that gave trolls the right to kill lowblooded trolls at will.   
But as strong as her desire to escape was, the fear for what would happen was stronger.   
The horror of having the System on your trail was a thought that sent shudders through her spine. With no visible proof, it was still common knowledge that they would stop at nothing to ‘correct’ a troll that broke the law, even if just to make an example. Warn the other trolls not to try anything heroic or morally right, scare the into silence.   
She hated not being foolishly brave enough to just not obey them, but her team needed her alive and not on the run. 

Her team. 

Nepeta smiled unconsciously.

 

Before Tavros left, Karkat had reasoned that they’d figure something out, even if they had to burn the Main House down, or ‘the slave market’, as Karkat dubbed it with so much despise in his voice he could have made old ladies cry.   
Tavros appreciated all the concern and help they tried to give him, probably more than they thought he did. But there really was no way he could escape this.   
He knew from the second the Hemospectrum was mentioned that he would succumb to the slavery following his blood.   
Unless, of course, they actually did take some seriously drastic measures, but Tavros hoped it wouldn’t come to that.   
Karkat was impulsive and didn’t always think ahead, and they really didn’t need their leader getting himself killed.   
That’s why they needed a strategist…if only Terezi was there.

 

Karkat was stalking around his house again.   
Walking aimlessly, long and tense strides that somehow managed to look like they held purpose, even if they were just walking wherever there was empty space.   
Only now, other than most of the times he wandered, his was also gritting his teeth and tearing a new hole into his jeans that were already torn beyond repair. All his leadership feelings were rising again, surfacing from the depths they’d been hiding in since the big and dramatic split-up.   
For reasons that were beyond his comprehension, he felt the intense need to make things go right.   
Maybe it was because he failed so spectacularly at keeping everyone safe last time, but he wanted damage to remain minimal.   
If there had to be some bad action, he’d rather take the brunt of it himself.

 

Tavros lay in his bed.   
He just wasn’t feeling the need or even will to sleep, or eat, or do anything really.   
Half of him was afraid of what would await him when he was sorted, the other half was worried over what his friends would do to try to stop it. The key word being try. Honestly, being a slave couldn’t be that bad, right? At least he’d have a home and a job…well, as close as whatever he got would be a home.   
Maybe he’d even land with some really nice people. Surely not everyone could be that bad.   
But then again, they wouldn’t want to buy someone like him. _‘Who would want a cripple with metal legs and a stutter? Even I wouldn’t want me…’_ he thought to himself, sighing heavily. _  
‘…Rufio?’   
_Tavros tried, completely out of nowhere.   
He hadn’t reached out to his persona-fied self esteem since he was a kid.   
He was entirely too grown up and mature for those kind of childish acts. He didn’t need Rufio now, he was strong and confident!   
But he was also scared.   
Terribly, wretchedly scared of having to die before he could even help change things, to be just another corpse for the worms to gnaw on.   
He was really tired of being no one, worth nothing to anyone.   
He didn’t even manage to say goodbye to Gamzee.   
Tavros was very close to not crying -thank you very much- when a thump came from his apartment. He would have sat up in a second if he could have, but his horns wouldn’t allow that and he really liked his neck in the correct shape.   
So he rose up by his elbows, trying to be as stealthy as he could. If it was a burglar, he’d really rather not have any trouble, especially of the physical kind.   
He snuck to his bedroom door, moving his legs as slowly as the possibly could go without tripping him, and in the meanwhile wondered how to open the door without making a noise.

Before he could reach a conclusion, it opened, literally startling him off his feet. He gave a very unmanly shriek that would have made Rufio facepalm -not that Tavros still believed in him or anything- and fell on his back, his massive horns keeping him from just falling on his ass like normal people.   
When he was done cowering and awkwardly shuffling to get his head back up, he was met with the sight of a very unamused Aradia in the doorway.   
She stared down at him, letting the silence only jarred by Tavros’s still slightly irregular breaths stretch way beyond discomfort.

Finally, Tavros decided he had to be the one to break it.   
“U-u-uh, hey, um, Aradia, you kind of, uh, s-scared me there. A little. That is.”   
Aradia still didn’t seem to be responsive, only staring at him with her usual expression: blank.

“Uhm. What. Er.” Tavros shook his head to try to get the words to come out right. He just wasn’t sure if he should even be talking.   
“What are you doing, here, in my, uh, apartment? At night? Without me letting you in? N-not that there’s anything wrong with that!” He hurriedly added, never mind Aradia not showing an ounce of being insulted.

Finally, she spoke. “Send Karkat and Nepeta a letter telling them you are to be collected for the blood sorting an hour after you’re really going. Use a rat or a raccoon or some animal you can talk into delivering for you. Sorry about coming in here, by the way, I guess I should have knocked.” It was hard to believe she was at all sorry, but Tavros didn’t comment.   
“You mean, uh, lie? To them? Why, why would I do that?”   
“It’s for the best. I don’t care if you choose not to, I’m just saying it’s the route with the best possible outcome.”   
Tavros stared at her with his mouth hanging half-open.   
 “S-sorry, to ask, but uh, how does that make a good outcome?”

Tavros finally picked himself off the floor, using his bed to stabilize himself. He was a little taller than Aradia, even though she was floating. She really wasn’t terribly big, and Tavros half-mindedly wondered if she’d stopped growing when she ‘died’.   
“I didn’t say it had a good outcome. Just the best one. But like I said, I’m okay with whatever you do. I figured I should just tell you.”   
Tavros opened his mouth to talk, then shut it again. He contemplated his options.   
On one side, it didn’t make much sense. Him dying or being put to a lower status than a farm animal didn’t seem like such a good outcome, but then again he was just one person.   
Maybe it was better in the long run for him to not be a part of the upcoming revolution?   
Maybe _‘ouch’_ they didn’t really need him, at all?   
And why would Aradia lie? She’d always had his best interests at heart, even if now she didn’t really care.   
But that also meant she wouldn’t be purposefully harming him.   
Plus, if he didn’t lie, Nepeta and Karkat, and probably Aradia too, would be in danger. The least he could do was to at least try to prevent that.

“O-okay, Aradia, I guess, I trust you.”

 

While Karkat and Nepeta were reading the letters sent by a lone fox and a squirrel, both of them trying desperately to think of a solution, Tavros was sitting solemnly on his couch, hands clasped together and hanging between his legs.   
When the doorbell buzzed, the actual intercom long since stopped working, his heart literally skipped a beat or two and his momentarily forgot how to expand and deflate. Although every nerve in his body was screaming at him to run away, abscond abscond _ABSCOND_ , he forced his unnatural legs to cooperate and carry him to the door leading down the stairs.   
He had to jump them, since he’d trip and fall otherwise. If nothing else, he wanted to at least appear to have dignity, while on the inside he wanted to lock himself in the closet and beg Rufio to help him.

_‘It’s for the others. Remember, if you don’t do this, they’ll do something rash and get in trouble. Trust Aradia. Don’t stutter, or talk at all, or you’ll make an idiot out of yourself.’_

After the standard check, where a small cut was made in his arms and the blood examined, confirmed to be low enough, he was directed to one of the buses on the further left side of the street, marked clearly with 320b00-5a800, the hues that were determined to be brown.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the bus, and immediately he was flooded with pained, scared, lost, sad, angry, or desperate faces, sometimes more than one emotion in a single one.   
All of them were a rustblood like him, the muddy colour coursing through their veins acting as an anchor keeping them on the bottom of the troll food chain.   
 When a guard troll nudged him in the back to keep him moving, his legs went on autopilot to the closest empty seat near the back, next to an old looking woman troll, with withered and weather-beaten little horns that looked like tiny bear ears.

As the ride went on and they neared their destination, and Tavros’s mind started to reel and he almost felt giddy from fear, the woman started sobbing, bitterly, quietly. Clear, brown-tinted tears rolled down her wrinkly cheeks and if Tavros was bold, like Karkat, like Nepeta, he would have tried to give her some comfort in what might be the last moments of her life, but he was none of those things.   
He was a coward, a wimp that was better off as a slave.   
All he could do was pretend not to hear the wails beside him as he shrunk in on himself, wishing he was safe in his mother’s arms again and too young to understand how miserable his life was really going to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more thing: A stranger named 'kt' pointed out that I made the walls of text a little too thick. I tried to fix it the best I could, I hope I succeeded. Constructive criticism is always nice!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'll go back in chapters and re-arrange them, since I'm trying to de-clusterfuck my text. If the chapters are re-posted and I accidentally spam your inbox, I'm very, very sorry.
> 
> Oh, and Happy 413!

If it wasn’t for his mutant blood, Karkat would have done a lot of things.

He would have liked to join the army, maybe. Although he hated the thought of fighting, nonstop, under the illusion that you were the good guys and the opposing team was the enemy. The illusion that this was for the greater good, you were protecting your country, you needed to do this. But wasn’t it the same story for the other army? Weren’t they the good guys in their own eyes, protecting their country from evil killing machines like you?

War was a fucked up thing, Karkat thought.

There was no black and white, good and bad, just everyone wanting to win regardless of the cost.  
He hated the concept of war, but they needed recruits; why not him?  
If Karkat wouldn’t go, they’d find someone else, maybe someone less experienced, someone who would die after six hours on the battlefield.

If Karkat could have joined, maybe he could have helped people in secret, sparing the lives that he was meant to kill, putting a spark back in the eyes of his fellow soldiers that were just as sick of killing as he was.

He would have liked to join under these preferences, but being in war meant getting hurt, and getting hurt meant crimson blood exposed to the world.

He would have liked to just get a normal job, too.  
Get an apartment in civilization, not in some abandoned shack on the edge of the city, where houses and people met plains and farms.  
No matter what anyone thought -and what Karkat lead people to believe- he was a social vampire, so to speak. He needed people to stay sane. The insane urge to keep everyone close to him safe and happy was so overwhelming when he had absolutely no one, he’d tear at his hair and clench his fists, leaving small, pink, crescent moons on his palm, just a step away from letting the source of his demise trail out in thin drops.

The people who had jobs, asshole bosses, annoying friends, demanding kismeses and attention-needing matsprits, maybe had to take the too-expensive train to see their moirail or had to listen to their ausptice’s two cents, they had no idea, no _idea_ , how lucky they were.

Karkat was tired of being on guard because frankly, all he would have wished for as a birthday present would be to have one day where he could chill with his friends, completely relaxed.

He’d hurt a lot of people with his lack of trust.

Terezi was continuously disappointed when she tried to find out what delicious flavour was flowing beneath Karkat’s skin.

Sollux always looked even more miserable when Karkat would shy away from any contact or exposure, even if it was just talk.

Gamzee would look hurt when Karkat yelled at him for startling him with his unusually scary horns, and Nepeta looked positively crestfallen every time Karkat turned her down.

His stupid, disgusting blood always managed to hinder him in some way.  
And now it was going to be the death of him for sure, just when he eyed the faintest glimmer of hope that he could actually change things.

 

 

 

Hands belonging to the staff, be it guards or simply assistants, roughly pushed Tavros into a room filled with other trolls of his hue and slammed the door shut almost before he’d even gotten his feet over the threshold.

He stumbled on his metal legs, the movement too frantic and surprising, and would have gone tumbling if it hadn’t been for another troll catching him by the chest.

“Easy, kid, you wanna poke someone’s eye out with that rack o’ yours?”

Tavros risked a glance up, while he scrambled to get his legs back under himself.

The troll that had caught him was big, though not as big as Tavros, with a thick beard and rather long, unkempt hair, and had muscles tensing and shaping his arms.

The hand that had now let Tavros go had scars trailing all the way up to his elbow, spreading and dwindling like he’d stuck his forearms into a blender.

“U-uh, t…thank…” he tried to get the words out of his mouth, but it appeared they had gotten lost on the way form his brain to his windpipe.

The man didn’t smile, but his eyes narrowed and twinkled a bit like he was amused.

“You sure got a tiny voice for such a big guy.”

Suddenly a guard that had previously been standing a few steps away, unnoticed until now, shoved the older troll at Tavros, who managed to put his arm out in time for him to grab it.

“Get undressed on put on your clothes, we don’t have all day!” the guard in a dodger blue vest barked at them.  
The bearded troll put on an offensive stance, broadening his chest and baring his fangs in a typical display of what might be called ‘COME AT ME BRO’, but Tavros tugged at his arm, forcing his attention elsewhere.

“Don’t start a fight, he’s, uh, armed, you’ll just get hurt, if you do.”

The man looked like he was angry at Tavros for a moment, and it was a pretty scary sight when you’d seen his jagged, sharp fangs, but soon relaxed and hunched his shoulders.

“I suppose you’re right ‘bout that.”

He then proceeded to pull Tavros towards one of the corners of the room where brown garments hung on the wall. The guard sneered at them, but let them pass.  
All the clothes were a simple brown colour, in a simple, one-size fit, with no unnecessary gadgets whatsoever.  
And, Tavros noticed, there were only pants. No doubt the women, all in another room, would get to wear shirts, but apparently that was a privilege men weren’t lucky enough to have.

Not only that, but the pants looked way too small on Tavros, as well as on his newly-acquired friend.  
Speaking of which…

“So, um, what’s your name, if you don’t, mind me asking, that is.”  
Tavros piped up while weighing the clothes in his hand.

“Why do you want to know, kid?”  
That put Tavros off-balance.

“Um, well, you don’t have to tell me, it’s just that, uh, you can call me ’kid’ all you want, but I can’t, really, call you ‘adult’ or ‘old man’.”  
 _‘Old man’_ almost smiled at that, almost. Something akin to a smirk appeared for a second but was wiped off before it could be noticed.

“Names breed attachments, kid. We won’t live long enough to afford to get attached.”

The words were stated as a matter of fact, with a hint of bitterness in them. It brought Tavros back to the hard reality of where he was, and what was going to become of him.  
All left for him to cling to now was what Aradia had said.

The guards didn’t seem to have much trouble with the prisoner’s -because that’s what they were- modesty.

Tavros awkwardly shifted his weight, uncomfortable with the piercing stares of the higher bloods around him. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t want them to see his more private parts, he barely had those anymore.  
He just felt even more vulnerable and bare when he finally took off his vest, displaying the area where skin met metal that much more clearly.  
Quite a few stares were directed his way, always hitting his face first, then traveling lower, and suddenly redirected, as if looking at the ugly scars and bolts that kept him walking was a taboo.

“Shit, son, what the hell happened to you?”  
Tavros’s companion asked, not at all shy to stare to his heart’s content and looking shocked while at it.  
Tavros appreciated it. It was refreshing to see someone ask him straight-out instead of staring and then whispering when they thought he couldn’t hear him.

“It’s, uh, a pretty long story, I guess. I used, to be a, uh, cripple, before I got these.”

“Can you actually move?”

Tavros chuckled at the curiosity and flabbergast of the troll.

“Uh, yeah, I mean, you saw me earlier, walking, that is.”  
To demonstrate, he took a few steps back and forth, showing how the metal bent and responded to his commands.

“I thought you were just wearing some freaky metal boots or somet-” he was cut off when a guard stormed over, tired of their chatter.  
Said guard, however, only then seemed to notice Tavros’s legs, and instantly forgot about stopping any talking.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Tavros instantly recoiled, fumbling to get the trousers.

“Uh, uh, I’m, er, I-I just-”

“Can we even use that?” the guard asked his fellow, who had come to check out the ‘freak’. When one of them started poking along the metal ridge, getting dangerously far into Tavros’s private space (just because he didn‘t have…down there, didn’t mean he wasn’t uncomfortable with being touched), beard-guy seemed to get a protective streak on, stepping slightly in front of Tavros and pushing the guard’s prodding hands away.

“Why don’t you guards mind your own fucking business, huh?” He said threateningly while assuming defense position.  
In all probability, he could have taken them down, if it had come to a duel or an agreement to fight. But obviously, the guards weren’t keen on prisoners mouthing off like that.  
Before there was even the chance of a fright breaking out, a small, black piece of plastic and-or metal appeared in one of the guard’s hand, and he thrust it forward into the bearded troll’s bicep.

Said troll yelled out in pain when the object turned out to be a stun gun, set to a very high power, judging from the sheer volume of his scream. Not three seconds later he was on the floor, twitching in aftermath from the shock.

“You wanna say something else, lowblood?” the guard taunted, stepping forward again. Tavros reacted on instinct, stepping in front of his friend and putting his arms out to the sides with the palms facing up, a standard display for surrender.

“Don’t! Uh, h-he’s very sorry, and er, this won’t, happen again, we’ll, we’ll just, get dressed now and go, okay? Uh, highblood.”

At the promise of getting dressed, the guards remembered their schedule and decided to leave them be.

“One more time, y’hear, and you’re both dead meat. You hear that, twinkle-toes?” the guard with the stun-gun said, grabbing Tavros’s horn and wrenching him forward, down to his height. Tavros winced at the rough treatment of a sensitive area, but nodded anyway, eager to get them off his back.  
Once the guards had stepped off, he sighed in relief, grabbing outfits for both him and the bearded troll and crouching down next to him.

“Are you all right? Uh, put these on, I don’t think they’ll be, well, giving us any more chances.”

The troll lying on the floor groaned a bit, rising up and leaning against the wall.

“Goddamn, kid, do you let just anyone walk all over you like that? That was fuckin’ pathetic.”  
Tavros grimaced, but didn’t react in any other way. He was used to much worse, after all.

“I-I’d rather, be pathetic, than to, uh, look badass, and get someone, er, k-killed, because of it.”  
The man stared at him for a while as Tavros got dressed, not in a lewd manner but more directly and intensely.

“They grabbed your horn.”

“Huh? Uh. Yeah. I guess?”

An awkward pause ruled as the troll seemed to examine Tavros, like he was looking for any trace of regret or insincerity. Finally, as they were both done dressing, and the guards were commanding everyone to line up, he broke the silence.

“Brogis.”

“I, uh, w-what?”

“My name. Brogis.”

“Oh…oh! Uh, I’m Tavros.”

Tavros managed a second of a bright smile before the guards were pushing them out the doors, where they would be herded into a large room full of highbloods waiting to claim a proper slave suited for their blood colour.

 

 

 

Karkat was startled into awareness by rapid knocking on his door.  
He’d slipped into deep thought like he sometimes did, zoned out and completely out of the world.

Of course, when the loud intruding noise got to his ears he was all alert again, forcing his breath to be stable and natural as to not be heard.  
The knocking continued, excited and fast, only pausing for a few seconds at a time.  
Karkat reached for his sickles, brandishing one in his left hand, the right one raised with the palm flat and upright.  
Whoever this was wasn’t going to sneak up on him unprepared.

“C’mon, Kar-kitty-cat, open uuup!”

A rush of breath escaped him as he relaxed, tossing the sickle away into the corner.

“Goddamn it Nepeta, you startled the fuck out of me. Do you know what I could have done to you with these things?”  
Karkat ranted as he let the lithe little girl in, practically skipping and jumping at the same time.

“Yes yes yes, I know you’re a really pawranoid guy and all that but no time for that! I have mews!”

Assuming she meant news and not actual mews, because stop the fucking presses, Nepeta made cat sounds all the time and wouldn’t pound his door down in excitement to tell him, Karkat prompted for her to continue, not noticing she already had.

“-home and when I looked under the rug I didn’t see anything, and where else could it have gone, I mean there isn’t much space in our room. So I asked Pawradia what she thought and I think she was right! I didn’t get that stupid blood-yadda yadda hiss letter because nobody meows I live here! I snuck away from Equius without him knowing so I’m actually an illegal immigrant in the city but it’s not my fault the guards in the sewers were pawful!”  
she went on and on, her face beaming while Karkat’s own went more and more slack in relief.

“Holy shit, I can’t believe this. We must be God’s favorite people. It is us.” he sighed as he let himself fall into a chair, almost causing it to tumble under his weight.

“I know! Are we lucky or what?!”

Nepeta bounced excitedly, stifling little giggles of mirth. Karkat could almost feel some of the tension seeping out of him, like a towel being wrung.  
Two of their party were safe, now he only needed to find some miraculous solution for himself and Tavros and they’d be all set.

Oh shit, speaking of which.

“Fuck, Nepeta, when did Tavros say they were coming for him?” the chair groaned as Karkat sat up straight in it, glaring.

“Um, I think he said around 8? That gives us about two hours.”

_‘Shiiiiiiiit. Shit-fucking damn.’_

Karkat tried to rake his brain for something, anything to postpone the almost inevitable for even just a few more hours, but came up blank.  
He must have been scowling something fierce, because Nepeta fidgeted and dropped her smile.

“I’m sure there’s time, Karkitty. We’ll come up with something!” she tried to appease him, trying to sound cheery.

A knock came on the door again, unfamiliar and intruding, professional.

_‘Oh. Oh fuck! Oh nononononononononononono-’_

Nepeta squeaked and went to look out the window before Karkat grabbed at her coat, pulling her away.

She stumbled but managed to twist to face Karkat anyway- _‘my god,’_ Karkat thought _, ‘can she possibly be more of a cat?’_ \- and her yell of surprise was muffled by Karkat’s big hand.

“Perk your itty bitty ears up, Nepeta, I’m only saying this once. Get out, go find Tavros and get him out of here, don’t go to your place or mine, just- I don’t know, go into some uninhabited place. You’re good at finding places impossible to find, right?”

Nepeta mumbled something from behind his hand, the nodding when she realized she wasn’t being heard.

“Okay, go.” he retracted his hand, leaving Nepeta stupefied behind. The knocking came back, louder this time.

“I said go!”

“B-but, I mean, will you be oka-”

“Goddamnit Nepeta does this look like the time to make an epic goodbye or something otherwise tragic and movie-like? Get the fuck out of here!”  
Karkat hissed, making furious waving hand motions towards the back door, clearly signaling to ‘GTFO’. With a final, worried look back, she scampered away, determined to at least do what Karkat asked of her.

 

ஜ۩۞۩ஜ

 

_You breathed a sigh of relief as soon as they were gone.  
It was hard, humiliating, and you hoped sincerely you would never have to go through that again, but it was worth it. It would be worth it. It had to.  
People often didn’t see you as a threat because of who you were, your status, your general nature. But those who did were ignorant to do so. They had another thing coming, and with luck, no one would ever know.  
Karkat Vantas was not going to be killed yet.  
Not while you were up and metaphorically kicking._

 

ஜ۩۞۩ஜ

 

Karkat finally opened the door, willfully doing it without giving himself time to think.  
If he had time, he’d go and do something stupid like try to run or even fight them.

Acting completely on impulse had served him well before, why wouldn’t it now?

Maybe because the world was determined to shit on him as if he were the bottom of a household porcelain.

The door revealed a prim, calm-looking woman, not old enough to be called old but not young enough to be called young either. Black hair was cut short and neatly fell against her head, making her even more business-like.

Karkat could tell from the obvious insignia that she was form the hospital-slash-medical center, and her blood was a Light Steel Blue. Not that he gave even half a shit about that last part.

“Good day, I assoome yoo’re Mr. Vantas?”

Karkat could only nod dumbly, busy observing the obviously brawny and capable guards swarming the premises. There was literally nowhere to run now. The woman also had either a speech impediment or a foreign accent, pronouncing her u‘s like oo‘s. It reminded Karkat of a cow mooing.  

“Very good. As I’m certain yoo know I am on behalf of our System to guide you to yoor correct seating, in regards to yoor statoos.”

Once the initial shock wore off, Karkat was almost nauseous.

 _Our_ System? _Guide_ you? Fucking _status_?

If he was actually going to be sick, he would make sure it would happen right on her neat little shoes.

The woman got tired of waiting for a reply, and instead handed him his half-transparent, anonymous glass he was to fill.

“Please fill this, Mr. Vantas.” after a moment of looking at his face, she added “or, we coold do so for yoo, if yoo’re uncoomfortable doing it yoorself.”

 _‘Man, I must look like a fucking cowering dog.’_ Karkat ruefully thought.

“Fuck no. I’m doing this shit myself.” He grumbled, willing his hands not to shake or drop the small, petite glass. He moved to go inside, but was abruptly stopped by the lady’s god-awful voice.

“Excoose me, Mr. Vantas, but yoo mustn’t leave our sight. The guards are armed and they will not hesitate to subdoo yoo.”

Karkat cursed inwardly, crossing one plan off his mental list.

“I’m just going to get a fucking knife, you can surround the house or whatever, not like I’m going to blast out of the fucking ceiling. Unless you want me to rip my hand open with my claws, but you don’t even want to know what I’ve been doing with those. Do you want all the indecent little bacteria in my cut? Because I might as well go lie down in my own shi-”  
the woman held her hand up to silence him, clearly her superior and well-cleaned, pierced ears couldn’t handle his language.

_‘Snobby cow.’_

"That’s quite enough, Mr. Vantas, yoo’re allowed to go inside. But make no mistake, if yoo try any resistance yoo will be handled accordingly.”

“Yeah, okay, watch my knees clack together in fear, all my plans to abscond have been ruined.”

A glint seemed to come on in miss Stupid-accent-bitch-cow’s eyes, and she gave some sort of subtle nod to one of her lackeys.  
The next thing Karkat knew he was shoved up against a wall, his breathing restricted only just by a strong hand on his windpipe, and the soft clicking of high-heeled shoes coming closer, sound muffled by the mud.

“Mr. Vantas, we do not tolerate any defiance in our commoonity.”

She lightly dragged an impeccably manicured nail down Karkat’s face.

“So if I were yoo, I would watch. My. Tongue.”

She hissed the last part as she scratched a vertical line across his throat, not hard enough to draw blood but enough to get the message across. He was abruptly let go, thankfully not doing anything as embarrassing as stumbling once his feet hit the ground, and felt his throat in a panic, making sure it didn’t show any trace of the red under his skin.  
He hurried inside, deliberately avoiding eye contact to make sure it wouldn’t be taken as ‘defiance’.  
It hurt his pride, but getting cut by the Cow’s nails was even worse.

Once inside, he knew he didn’t have much time, so he went straight for his sickles, the nearest sharp object.  
He frantically searched for some way to get out of this, any way, but found nothing.

He heard footsteps, the _click-click-click_ of high heels hitting the rock outside his door. It was only seconds before she’d be inside.

In a panic, Karkat filled the glass with water, intending to try and water his blood down. Maybe it would turn some kind of pink or orange or whatever red turned into when thinned out?

_Click-click-click._

He hurriedly made a move to cut his forearm, but stopped with one hand on the sickle, the stretched out to take its edge.

The water had turned a dull brown-orange hybrid.

“Ah, yoo are finished. I will take the glass now.”  
he heard the Cow say behind him, and quickly dragged his sleeve down in case she saw his uncut flesh. In a sort of mild daze, he handed her the object, watching in complete disbelief he she took it. There were no second glances, no wait-a-minutes, no guards rushing in to put him out of this world.

“It seems yoo will not be needed for re-stationing, Mr. Vantas. Thank yoo for yoor cooperation, although I expect yoo to be more…apprehensible next time. If we need yoo again, we will be in touch.”

And just like that, the _click-click-click_ grew further and further away, until it died out completely, and only then did Karkat answer,

“Yeah, sure, okay.”

Once everything was silent, he simply lay on the floor, wondering what the hell he had done to receive mercy like this.  
A capital-lowercase-zigzag of letters about indecently-behaving miracles came to mind.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this took so long. I couldn't find anywhere to cut the chapter off so it's really long. If only I put this much effort into my essays in school.  
> Speaking of, I've been caught up in Finals Week, which is why I didn't have much time to write. Hopefully I'll do better from here on out.

Tavros stood awkwardly in the middle of a damp, muddy room filled with other trolls.

At first, it hadn’t actually looked that bad. The lowbloods were simply lead down some hallways, through a few doors, instructed to stay silent and walk briskly.  
It was more like being at school than anything else.  
Tavros half-expected to see flying paper airplanes and hear kids giggling when the teacher scolded someone.  
But as soon as they were away from the eyes of people not directly concerned, the atmosphere changed.

Their hands were tied behind their backs, roughly with a weathered rope that cut into the tough, grey flesh, letting multicolored bruises well up underneath them.  
 Anyone who stumbled, resisted or talked was batted with a baton, not hard enough to really hurt but enough that it was considered completely improper.  
Every troll bound by their hands was sneered at, and in a lot of cases, ogled.  
Tavros got a few lewd stares, but when they saw his legs they turned into a grimace.  
A troll a few people in front of Tavros wasn’t that lucky; he was young, petite, and obviously scared out of his mind.  
A few guard hands found their way into private places, while the more civilized ones weren’t looking.

He remembered being awestruck, and not in a good way.

_‘This is nothing different from the slavery that used to be around. They make it sound like they’re giving us nice jobs, but we’re being treated like dogs.’_

He probably halted or something, because the next thing he knew someone had wrenched his head forward by his horn and pushed him to walk onwards.

Seriously, what was it with people and his horns?

And now he was here, in a bright-lit, filthy room with more than one speck of rust, brown or yellow blood on the floor.  
The odor of sweat, bodies, and distinct fear was evident in the air, clogging every sense and sending a badly repressed shudder of dread through his body.

He was directed into line, one of three in the middle.  
He gathered that the yellowbloods were in the first two lines, the brownbloods took the next three and the rustbloods took five in the back.

Brogis was one of the rustbloods, two lines behind Tavros.  
Brogis pointedly looked only forward, not making eye contact with Tavros, who took the hint and faced forward as well.  
Now that the guards seemed more loose, there was no telling what they’d do if someone disobeyed.

 

After a while, his legs got tired.

Well, not really his legs, but his hips ached from standing and walking for so long without rest. It was a sensitive thing, this mechanism that connected nerves and metal.  
It was almost like artificial muscles, someone explained to him once, only stronger and less prone to pain.

Someone came into the room, striding loudly and purposefully over the floor, making what Tavros thought was louder than needed clunks.  
He couldn’t see anything from where he stood, various horns, heads and shoulders blocking the view, but he heard a haughty, nasal voice talk slowly to someone.  
 One of the guards, most likely, answered him in short, clipped words, adding the ever-present ‘sir’ after each sentence.  
It had to be a pretty important highblood, judging from the level of respect he got.

After a few more words, he strode closer to Tavros, allowing him to see black, skin-tight pants but not more else, since he walked into one of the rows of trolls and examined them.  
He was obviously only looking at yellowbloods, any lower colour probably below him.

Tavros idly wondered whether Sollux was there among them, despite having looked frantically before and not seen any double-horns.  
The again, he could be in one of the other rooms.  
Tavros hoped not.  
Like him, Sollux’s mutations could get him in trouble besides their usefulness, just like Tavros’s legs.

A whimper came from somewhere to his left.

After a scuffle and some swearing, and a thump that sounded too much like knuckles hitting skin, only talk from the Highblood and the guards was heard.

For the tiniest moment, Tavros could see it; the tall, muscled troll with the obvious build of a purpleblood, a Garden Plum sign embroidered on his jacket’s shoulder.  
After him came a guard, holding a short line of rope in his hands, and on the end of that line was a yellowblood, a man little older than Tavros but also much smaller.

Pure, unaltered terror was on his face, his mouth frozen in a quiet sob, trying to keep up with the long strides of the trolls in front of him.  
His look of despair matched the purpleblood’s look of perverted glee.

A woman in the row right in front of Tavros snapped; she screamed and tugged at her ropes, shrilly shouting a name Tavros didn’t catch.

The man being led away turned one last time before the door slammed shut, but the lady kept hollering long after, until one of the guards came and smacked her across the face.

The next half minute was terrifying to Tavros.

The troll fell right at his legs, curling into herself but continuing her wailing all the while.  
Before the Taurus could react, or even think of what to do, the guard was right in front of him, kneeling over the lady.  
He rapped once on her neck, right above the windpipe making her gasp and take a rattling breath, and when she struggled to get air, he placed a knife on top of her tongue, just short of drawing blood.

“Shut the fuck up.” he simply said, pressing harder for emphasis.

_‘Please’,_ Tavros thought, _‘please just be quiet, he’s going to do it just stay silent this isn’t worth it just be quiet please’_ repeating the mantra begging the hysterical troll to give up the fight.

She finally went slack, her head dropping to the ground and her eyes closing softly.

The guard hauled her up by the back of her neck, setting her back in line.

“ANY OTHER OCCURANCES AND YOU WON’T BE THIS LUCKY.” T

his guard obviously wasn’t much for words so he left it at that, the unsaid threats still powerful enough to leave almost a physical impact.

Tavros caught a glimpse of the troll that had caused all of this, and what met him was the most desolate, empty, weak look he had ever seen.

The woman didn’t utter a word when she was taken away by a blueblood later on.

 

 

Karkat didn’t know for how long he has just lay there on the floor.

He was vaguely expecting someone to jump out, screaming ‘surprise’, or ‘joke’s on you’, or ‘fuck you you’re under arrest!’.

No one came, however, and soon his shoulder blades were hurting from their awkward pressure against the hard stone floor.

He grunted as he pushed himself up, cracking a couple of places in his back for good measure.

Obviously, some goddess or ancient infidel had taken a liking to him, and hell if he wasn’t going to use it to the fullest.

He dusted a bit of dirt and dust from his ass as he stood up, sighing as he did so.  
One problem down, one more to go.  
Now to figure out how to bail the incredible stuttering hulk out, and they were all set to start helping other trolls too stupid to magically acquire colour-changing tap water. He kind of regretted having been so rude to Nepeta, but if she hadn’t gotten out in time she could have been in a lot of trouble.  
All childish admiration-crushes from the past aside, Karkat thought of her as a very cherished little sister, and acted accordingly.

The worst pain in the backside was that they couldn’t just call each other.  
Any suspicious conversations and the System operators would be on them like vultures on carcass.  
He couldn’t afford getting attention dragged to him, not now when he was just starting to cause mayhem.  
If Tavros was there, he could send his little animal friends to deliver a message like he was princess Stone Gray.  
Nepeta could probably just skip over the rooftops or something, but she was currently getting Tavros away, so no dice there.

At the moment, he felt pretty damn useless, standing immobile in the middle of the room with his sickles in hand.  
Shaking his head to get rid of the self-depreciating thoughts, ( _‘what the hell man you don’t have time for this now, what are you, a mutated computer-geek with a lisp?’_ ), he stormed out the door, determined to at least try and get shit done.

 

He didn’t make it very far, however.

Not out of sight from his shack, a bundle of hair, fabric and limbs sprung on him, nearly tripping him.  
He reached for his sickles, but stopped at the sight of large, frantic eyes. Nepeta’s pupils were actually more slit-like than normal troll’s.  
Huh. Go figure.

“Karkitty! It’s pawful!”

Did she ever let go of the puns?

“What is it, Nepeta? Calm your fucking ti- uh, calm down.”

She was still tugging on his shirt, dragging his head down to her level as well as just clinging.

“It’s Tabby! He wasn’t at his home, no one was even in the block! I think they already came for him!”  
Karkat’s brow furrowed further.

“What?! How’s that- But he said-”  
 Slowly, realization dawned on him.

“Fuck. Oh fucking shit hell with piss in it. He must have lied to us. Why the fuck would he even do that?!”

Nepeta looked crestfallen, and Karkat decided he’d trip Tavros down some stairs just for that. He could take it, probably.

“Shit, we need to find him. Where’s Aradia? She can do that psychic shit, right?”  
Nepeta hesitated. “I haven’t seen her. Karkitty, we don’t have much time.”

Fuck it all with a cherry on top.

“Guess we’ll have to improvise then.”

 

 

“Tavros Nitram?”

Tavros yanked his head up when he heard his name from across the room.

“A highblood is asking for a Tavros Nitram. Step up, brownblood Tavros Nitram.”

A huge wave of hesitation came over him.

Who would be looking for him? More importantly, what would they want with him? He didn’t know any highbloods, no one he met would have anything to do with him, and that was before the System.  
Behind him, two trolls whispered between themselves.

“Can they do that? Ask for specific trolls?”

“Yes, if they know their identities, now be quiet.”

Tavros gulped and stepped forward.

“T-that’s, uh, me. Right here.”

The announcer snapped his fingers, signaling to a guard to lead him over.  
It was awkward walking with your hands tied like that, but it worked.

Tavros cast one last glance at Brogis, nearly knocking down a couple of slaves with his horns, and managed eye contact for a split second.

It said more than they could have conveyed in hushed whispering.

He was lead out of the room in front of everyone, and the stares he got were almost solid.  
Apparently, being asked for specifically wasn’t always a good thing, judging from the sympathetic glances a couple of trolls gave him.  
He tried to smile, but realized too late that he probably just looked like he was acting out a creepy clown. Once he was inside a small, much cleaner room, he was positioned in the middle of it, right in front of four men and what had to be the highblood looking to buy him.

Tavros felt a shock in his gut, and was surprised to find it was just emotion and not a fist in his stomach.

He’d know that tall, firm figure with impossibly tangled hair anywhere. 

Gamzee was looking at him -no, staring at him- with half-lidded eyes, devoid of their usual pleasant haze.  
His lazy smile was missing, too. In fact, he looked almost foreign, fixing a very cold, condescending look at Tavros.  
Tavros’s smile froze on his face as he regarded the absolute unfamiliarity he got from his best friend.

…They were best friends, weren’t they? Even if they’d stopped talking a couple of years after everyone broke up?

He suddenly felt very nervous, standing half-naked like this, tied and subdued and shaking.

“Is this him, Highblood?”

One of the men near Gamzee asked, taking a look at Gamzee who never broke the staring contest with Tavros.

“Looks like this is my motherfucker.”

A rough hand is suddenly thrust harshly in between Tavros’s shoulder blades, and he tumbled forward, hoping to god no one heard that little squeak that was definitely just air escaping his lungs from the push and not an actual squeak from surprise nor fear.

Thankfully he didn’t fall and embarrass himself, but he did get uncomfortably close to this person that was apparently Gamzee.

He was possibly the only person he’d met that was still taller than him, Tavros mused. Only by a couple of inches, but it was still very different from what he was used to. Of course, that particular hue of purple and those surrounding it had always indicated oddly large bodies, and as powerful as they were intimidating.  
Tavros hoped he wouldn’t have to test that out.

“Feel free to examine him, highblood, and let us know if he meets your needs.” Someone said, Tavros couldn’t be bothered to turn around and see who it was.  
The guards behind Gamzee were giving the indigoblood a strange look, though, like they were waiting for him to act.  
Tavros decided to be very daring and act on impulse.

“Gamzee.” he whispered almost too low for anyone to hear, more a gust of breath than an actual name.

Well, that wasn’t nearly as daring as he’d imagined it.

Gamzee saw it, though, perhaps he read the lips, but his reaction was way different from what Tavros had expected. He looked…angry, or possibly shocked, but only a slight twitch of the mouth showed it.  
Before Tavros could analyze it, Gamzee grabbed his chin and turned it on an angle, inspecting his face.  
The gesture wasn’t rough or painful, but it was sudden and unexpected, and Tavros flinched bodily.

_‘Gamzee, what’s going on?’_

Suddenly there was another hand on his face, clad in a glove, and this one pressed against the junction in his jaw, forcing his mouth open.

“He has fine teeth, as you can see, no misshapes or cracks.”

A thumb ran over his fine, pointed teeth, then pressing into the base of his tongue to tilt his head more forward.  
Tavros spluttered and choked a bit, but a warning hand fisted in his hair eliminated all need of struggling and getting away.  
Gamzee wouldn’t let them hurt him.

Right?

“I’ll motherfucking take him.”

Gamzee finally piped up, making the gloved man extract his hands from Tavros.  
A few uncertain glares were directed his way.

“Are you certain? We do have finer specimen, who are not as -ah- mutilated as this one.”

Gamzee just glared at the troll.

“I don’t really mind that. Seems to me he can walk.”

The gloved hands wringed together.

“Yes, well, but you see, he doesn’t have…his, well, all of his lower parts. It might disappoint you to find that you can’t-”

Much to Tavros’s relief, Gamzee cut the troll off.

“I said I didn’t really motherfucking mind that. I won’t be touching that shitblood if I can motherfucking help it, I just want him to work.”

This finally seemed to intimidate the handler into submission.

“Of course. Would you like us to bring him to your car, or…?”

“I can take him there my motherfucking self.”

The rope on Tavros’s wrists was tugged, and all too suddenly he was being led out of the room, through another entrance than the one he came through, presumably to Gamzee’s car.

He must have already paid, because soon they were alone in a changing room where new clothes for Tavros were hanging, much like the ones he was given first but with a sleeveless jacket and made from thicker material.  
Before Tavros could even reach for the new clothes, eager to put something more covering on, he was suddenly spun around and forced to face Gamzee.

“Bro? You motherfucking alright? They didn’t up and hurt you or nothin’, did they?”

The sudden change of character zapped all thinking abilities from Tavros’s head. He could only stare numbly at what was maybe his friend, maybe his enemy, and definitely his new Master.  
That last fact alone was enough to scare him a bit.  
Gamzee still had his hands on his shoulders, standing incredibly close, so much that Tavros’s eyes crossed trying to focus on Gamzee’s.

“G-g-ga-- uh…”

Man, his tongue just wasn’t operating right now. Gamzee suddenly looked absolutely heartbroken, and he backed away without actually releasing Tavros.

“I didn’t…you’re not all scared of me or nothing, are you, Tavbro? ‘M sorry man, I had to act all like a highblood, those motherfuckers been suspicious of me since the start. I didn‘t mean to up and confuse you, bro.”

Tavros finally found his ability to speak.

“You…I, uh, I mean, you…bought. Me.”

Gamzee looked confused for a second, and that confused Tavros even further. He almost flinched when Gamzee suddenly slapped his palm on his forehead, leaving a smudge in the makeup.

“Oh! No, motherfucker, you all got it wrong! I just got this message sayin’ they were all up and taking you, man, so I figured, Gamzee, you better get your motherfucker before someone else all up and does. I won‘t be up and…owning you or nothing, Tavbro. You‘re as free as a bee.”

Oh.

Well.

That was kind of unexpected.

But still, somehow Gamzee would do something like this.  
Not even trying to explain himself, figuring he didn’t need to, he just decided to save Tavros’s entire existence like everyone would do the same.  
He probably thought everyone would, but Gamzee was just naïve like that.

Tavros figured no one could really blame him when he half-tackled Gamzee in a hug, making the slightly taller troll grunt a little.

“I just, choked you with my horns, didn’t I?”

“’S fine, m’ bro.”

 

Karkat and Nepeta raced through the nearly empty streets leading to Main House.

Karkat impatiently pushed people away as he passed them, sometimes even when they weren’t in the way at all.  
Nepeta spun in circles trying to apologize to everyone who fell victim to the Karkat bus, running away before they could blame her.

When they were some way away from the Main House, she started worrying about the plan that didn’t exist.  
Non-existent plans usually didn’t work well, but Karkat never seemed to learn.

They could see the house now, in all its looming glory. But things in Nepeta’s vision suddenly lurched, and she found herself levitating, surrounded by a soft, white glow. Somewhere to her front left Karkat was shrieking obscenities, flailing like never before in mid-air.  
He somehow managed to turn himself upside-down, making his hoodie flap into his face and expose his stomach.

“It would be better for you if you stayed still.”

Nepeta gasped, Karkat struggled with his clothes.

Aradia was hovering over them, impassive with her hand raised towards them, glowing the same white.

“Pawradia, what gives!” Nepeta hated how she sounded like a little kid whining.

“It is better if you wait here for some while.”

Karkat finally managed to get himself somewhat upright, hissing with confusion and possibly embarrassment.

“No, we need to get our asses to the Main House right now! Would you put me the fuck down?”

Aradia shook her head.

“Not yet. You’ll just run away and get caught. It’s only a few seconds more, though. In fact, they should be here right about…..”

 

 

In a car up the road, a still euphoric young troll asked his friend and life-saver where he’d gotten the letter from.

“You know, you, uh, said, you got something, that, told you what was…going on?”  
Gamzee leaned his head to the side like he tended to do when he was confused (kind of like a lost puppy, only a very big one, Tavros thought), but snapped it back up when it came to him.

  
“Oh yeah! Hell if I all up and motherfucking know, man, shit just appeared out of nowhere. I was all sitting at my computer, right, and-”

“Oh my god, what, is that?!”

Tavros interrupted, pointing ahead where two blobs were floating in mid-air, and another one slightly above them.  
As the car sped closer, the blobs turned into figures, but before any characteristics could be made out the closest one moved and the car stopped so suddenly its back wheels went airborne-- and stayed that way.

 

 

“…Now.” A car that had gone unnoticed up until then sped from the corner, stopped with Aradia’s lazy wave of hand.  
The car almost tumbled over but instead floated with its behind in the air until Aradia let it down, also allowing Nepeta and Karkat to fall to the ground, Karkat’s landing slightly unceremonious.  
 At the same time, two large trolls stepped out from the car, and it wasn’t until Karkat heard Nepeta’s “Oh my gosh, Tabby!” that his mind caught up with his eyes.

Nepeta was jumping Tavros, who awkwardly fumbled and wriggled in surprise, glancing slightly at Aradia above him.  
Next to Tavros was the tallest troll Karkat had ever seen.  
While Tavros’s size was in so much contrast to his personality it seemed non-fitting, this troll looked like he wasn’t meant to be anything but lanky and towering. It wasn’t threatening, it was more harmless, like a huge, tame bear.  
Then the troll turned around to reveal the face paint and dull, hooded eyes and a lazy grin, and Karkat’s mind decided to call it quits and leave the vicinity of his head.

“Gamzee?”

Nepeta squealed, still hanging onto Tavros but now eyeing his surprising company with a skeptical-slash-delighted look, if that was a look you could use.

“Hey, my lil’ kitty sis, what’s all up and happening? I haven’t seen you in ages.”

Apparently this tipped the scale into delighted, and Nepeta ran over to him, greeted with a bear-hug and a swirl.

“Eee! You’re even bigger than Tabby!”

“And you’re even tinier than Karbro!” Gamzee laughed.

Karkat scoffed. Seriously, every fucking time…

Suddenly a pair of long and muscular arms were around Karkat, hoisting him up like a cat.

“What no Gamzee put me down fuck get off-”

One could wonder if Gamzee didn’t hear Karkat, didn’t register the hints, or simply didn’t give a fuck, but either way he only wrapped him in a smothering embrace of broship.

“Aw, motherfucker, don’t I even get a hello from my little rager?”

Karkat, who did most certainly not return the hug even a little bit when he thought no one would notice, managed to wriggle out the death grip of Gamzee’s affection, just in time to catch a glimpse of Tavros’s and Aradia’s conversation.

“--you plan all of this, the, unexpected meeting up, that is?”

Karkat and Gamzee turned around, also curious.

“It was all I could do. You are incredibly dense most of the time.”

“That’s so cool Pawradia! How did you know?”

Aradia apparently decided to grace them with her more full-on presence as she glided down to their level, still no touching the ground completely.

“I will explain everything, but maybe we should move inside, as this is not the best location for lengthy talks.”

 

In Tavros’s apartment, that was way too small for all of them but somehow still worked, they all listened to Aradia’s explanation.  
Which was, not all that surprisingly, mostly about how she’d ‘been instructed to steer matters in this direction so that you wouldn’t screw everything up’.

“So, to sum this ridiculous excuse of a plot together, you instructed Tavros to give in….just because you fucking knew it was the most formidable choice.”

Aradia nodded.

“That’s what I said.”

Tavros laughed nervously, standing to the side in favor of giving the couch to Gamzee and Nepeta, while Karkat refused to be anywhere but leaning against the wall.

“Wow, uh, I can’t help, but think maybe, it would have been easier to just, uh, say so. But, thank you, all the same.”

Anything Aradia said was swallowed by Gamzee’s sigh/yell of revelation as he slapped his forehead with enough force it would have hurt anyone else.  
Karkat made some lame joke about the thickness of his head in the back of his mind.

“So _you_ were the one who all up and sent me a message about the happenings of my Tavbro? Man, that was a bitchtits clever move, sis, I didn’t even all up and recognize you!”

If Aradia could look confused, which she probably couldn’t, it would have been now.

“I sent no messages. I just knew Tavros would be okay if he went. All other scenarios are beyond my doing.”

Nepeta tugged on Gamzee’s shirt.

“What message?”

“Oh, I got some wicked text telling me Tavbro was in all sorts of trouble, so I just went and tried to help him out the best I could. I was all sitting at my computer, right-”

“But if it wasn’t, anyone in here, then who sent it?” Tavros interrupted, again, looking uneasy.  
Nobody said anything, just looking quizzically at each other.

Karkat wondered that as well, not to mention the freaky water-to-blood transformation that saved his own ass.  
That mystery-person had to know about his blood, and the thought made Karkat feel queasy.  
Someone held an awful lot of power over them, and they didn’t even know who.  
At least whoever it was was on their side, at the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thanks to everyone who's still reading despite my inconsistency. Knowing even one person likes it really motivates me. ヽ(o▽o)/


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Finally- I managed to finish it. Phew.  
> I'm trying to work the colouring code thingamajig, so if it's reposted, I'm very sorry.  
> I have no idea what I'm doing.
> 
> EDIT: Hahaha, it has colours!! That took me forever, I kept thinking "Why would Sollux do something like this voluntarily?"

“Hmmmmm, I’m sooooooo booooooored.”

Nepeta moaned, dragging out the vowels and dangling her feet under the table to get at least some movement.

“I thought this rebellion stuff was going to be filled with action and romance and fun. …And justice, I guess.”  
She added as an afterthought, her priorities completely straight, of course.

“It’s, not all about fun, and games. You need, uh, planning, too.”  
Tavros reprimanded her, sitting on the other side of the table, fastening the screws on his ankles.  
He’d probably need new ones soon, since he was doing so much running around lately. He should have felt somewhat inconvenienced for having to buy the sturdier, more expensive screws now, but instead he felt accomplished.  
He needed good gear for doing good work, after all. It felt more real this way.

“And where did the romance come from?”  
He added, glimpsing up to her.

“Are you, uh, still, going after him? Karkat, that is.” he grinned impishly, watching her drowsy, frowny face go from shocked to embarrassed in a matter of milliseconds.

“What? No! I am not, really I’m not!”  
she slammed her hands on the table, standing up to her full height.  
 Tavros chuckled and raised his hands, “All right, all right, I’m just, asking, here. No need to get so, uh, defensive.”

“I am not being defensive!”  
 Nepeta yelled, jumping over the table to tackle her big-horned friend.

One of his ankles was still out of commission, so with a yelp and a flail they both fell to the floor in a heap of struggling limbs.

“Nepeta, ow, get off!”

“Not so tough meow, are you?”

 Tavros could easily lift her off himself, raising her so that he was just out of arm’s length for her. Nepeta scratched into the air, trying to get closer to him so she could teach him a lesson.

“Yeah, well you’re obviously going fur Gamzee so maympfffrrf!”  
 He quickly slapped his hand over her mouth, looking around to see if there were any listeners around.

“Shh, would you keep quiet?” he whispered to her.

A wet, slick something grazed his hand and he tugged it away, grimacing and wiping it off on his shirt.  
Nepeta stuck her weapon, the tongue, out at him.

“Not so much fun when it’s happening to you, huh?”

“I was just asking, jeez.” T

heir half-whispering dissolved into giggles as they took each other in, beat-red in the face.

To Nepeta, it felt pawsetively wonderful to be joking around with Tavros again. They had been really good friends before, despite everything.  
It felt like a slice of the cake that was the group they used to be in was being un-trashed and put in its respectful place.

Or maybe she was just hungry.

They were interrupted by Karkat clearing his throat in the doorway.

“Sorry if I’m interrupting some heartfelt romance fest, I’ll leave you to slobbering over each other’s faces once I’m done here, but I ask that you keep your clothes on just while my innocent fucking eyes are on the room, thank you.”

Nepeta and Tavros scrambled away from each other so hurriedly they ended up just kicking into the air and each other.

“W-we, uh, weren’t, I mean, we’re not, well..”

“Oh no no no, it’s not like that, we were just talking about things but then Tabby was being mean and-”

“Hey, y-you were the one to jump me!”

Karkat sighed. Why did he even spend time around these people, they were complete fuckwits and should be in an institution for such.

“Look, I don’t actually care if you were getting down and dirty, I just have an announcement, okay?”

More peeps of denial were heard but Karkat held up his hand, making some squawky noise every time they protested.

“But-”  
“Ah!”

“We we-”  
“Nope!”

“Kark-”  
“Stsh!”

Finally Karkat won out, Tavros and Nepeta realized they were outnumbered in childishness and sat back in their seats, moping.

“All done? We good here? Fan fucking tastic. Now listen up.”

Nepeta noticed how Karkat always changed attitude when he was talking about something important.  
 He’d get a different demeanor from his normal angry rant about everything and nothing, not chewing on his words as much and definitely not using as much vile metaphor.

_‘Like he was born to be a speaker.’_

“Since we’re about ass deep in the process of being badasses and saying fuck you to the system, I figured we’d try and spread the word. Nepeta, you do drawing and painting and stuff, right?”

Nepeta nodded. “Sure, I mean, I purractice it anyway, but I don’t know if I’m that decent at it. Why?”

It’s true; she used to draw pictures upon pictures, mostly of her friends. Later, when she got a little more of age, she’d draw more…adult pictures.  
Equius nearly had a heart attack when he found one. But if anyone could paint nowadays, it’d probably be her.

“You know that really tall block some streets away? The one that always blocks out the fucking sunshine like it’s a giant ass umbrella that we can’t even move because it’s made of cement and steel? And the owner of that umbrella doesn’t give a shit if half of the neighbourhood is in a near constant state of shade because they’re apparently more worthy of the sun, being wealthy and all? As if the sun is some two-dollar side-street hooker that can be bought off with fancy ass ca-”

“Uh, Karkat, you’re doing the, uh, ‘ranting thing‘ again.”  
Tavros meekly mentioned from his seat, like a schoolboy interrupting a teacher.  
No teacher would scowl as fiercely as Karkat without getting a few parental complaints, though.

“Right. Okay. Thank you, Tavros, now keep quiet goddamn it I’m trying to explain here.”   
Tavros rolled his eyes and Karkat continued, a little quieter than before.

“So as I was saying, that huge block is blocking -hah- out the sun for a lot of people. Not me or you but we think for the good of the mob, not just ourselves, we’re good guys like that. So I propose we paint our message on that giant ass block so everyone in that high-and-mighty street can see it.”

Karkat grinned smugly. To him, this was a brilliant plan, not to mention devious and effective.  
Fun, even.  
The other members saw it a bit differently.

“How will we get the money needed, for painting something, so gigantic?”

“How will we even get up there? It’s huge!”

“Won’t people, uh, ask questions, if a giant vandalism is painted, at the relatively same time, as someone bought huge amounts of paint?”

“I’m not even sure if I can handle something like that!”

Not much support was sensed in Karkat’s mind.

“Way to pop the fucking bubble, assholes. Remind me to talk to Gamzee first next time, Jesus. Speaking of, he’s like way rich or something, right? Being a highblood and all? If we all pitched in we could probably maybe afford all that paint.”

Tavros and Nepeta looked at each other, both wearing the same non-believing, skeptical expression. Karkat threw his hands in the air, turning and stomping out of the room.

“Fine, sorry I brought up a mission, I can’t believe I was such a fucking idiot. Keep rubbing up each other’s bulges, I’ll just be in my room doing absolutely fucking nothing like a deformed rock growing moss.”

Nepeta and Tavros shared a final look before they got up to go after their leader (Tavros with a little difficulty). Once they made it out of the doorway, big and lanky arms caught them both, slowing them to a stop.

“Whoa, motherfuckers, where’s all the fire at?” At the silence that met him, Gamzee gently put Nepeta down and let go of Tavros’s shoulders.

“Don’t you worry about Karbro none. He’s just all up in a mood like he does, been like this all motherfucking day. He’ll be all good in a little while. Best to just go and leave him for a while, you get me?”

Tavros resigned and nodded, while Nepeta still tried to stare through the door separating her and Karkat.

“He seems pawfully moody…You sure he doesn’t need any company right meow?”

“Positively, catsis. Now how about we go cook up some motherfucking grub?”

 

 

Karkat slammed the door a little too loudly, jumping a bit at the thud. He hoped he didn’t break anything this time.  
Okay, maybe he had overreacted a little.  
Maybe more than a little.  
Maybe he was a gigantic asshat that had a worse attitude than a certain lispy troll he used to know, but he was anxious and edgy from not doing anything for so long.  
He felt like he was failing his self-proclaimed mission by just sitting around.  
Sure, there wasn’t much they could do at the moment, but there had to be something. Even just to give them the illusion of getting things done.

Sighing loudly, he turned on his small and insanely crappy laptop that still hung together only from willpower and a little duct tape.  
As soon as the old thing had gathered its wits and started up, the old IM chatline opened instantly. He’d gotten it to happen every time he logged on back when it was still used, and somehow had never had the heart to change it.  
He chalked it up as forgetting, or it not really being important; hell if he’d admit any sentimentality.

Despite the denials he put up in his head, the usual, slowly settling feeling curled up in his stomach, twitching at every grayed-out name.  
Once or twice, some days after the huge, dramatic break-up, he’d seen someone online, the names lighting up with their representative colours: Nepeta, Tavros, Feferi, even Sollux once or twice.  
He never gathered the guts to talk to any of them, and eventually the names stayed gray for good.

Karkat narrowed his eyes and clicked the little red x a bit harder than necessary.  
He didn’t miss anyone.  
Nope.  
Suddenly, the program opened up again.

“The fuck…?” Karkat muttered, quitting it again. Just as he was about to open his browser, it went up again.

“Goddamn stupid piece of a bastard’s son’s shit, fuck off!”  
He clicked the x multiple times, but before he could move the mouse too far it opened up again.

“RGAH!”

Karkat made some strange animalistic noise as he laptop-flipped the machine, thankfully making it land on the bed and not shatter on the floor.  
He heard the whispers outside his door abruptly cease, then turn into a hushed, painfully muffled chuckles. T  
hose bastards were laughing at him!  
He growled one last time before deciding the world wasn’t worth having Karkat in it at the moment, face-planted into his bed and lay there, determined to show the world how much of a fuck he didn’t give.  
By slowly suffocating in his mattress.  
He was simply the master of plans.  

 

...

 

But then there was the matter of his cellphone ringing in the kitchen.  
Amazingly enough, it got Karkat to lift his head up from its hole in the mattress.  

Who would ever ring him? He didn’t know many people aside from the occasional employers or store clerks, and even then it wasn’t on the level of ever exchanging first names, never mind numbers.  
And then there was his team of fellow misfits, but they were all right here.  
Well…what he had of them so far.  
Except Aradia, but she showed up in her own ghostly way when she wanted to, she wouldn’t be calling him. Although if anyone mysteriously had his number, it’d be her.

Just as Karkat swung himself out of bed, the bleeping stopped abruptly, replaced with Gamzee’s happy and inappropriate greeting.  
Great.  
He sprung out of bed, throwing the door open viciously to get to his idiot of a friend before he could do much harm.  
Just as Karkat entered the room, he caught Gamzee fending off a curious Nepeta and Tavros, grinning into the phone.

“Oh, hey sis, been a long motherfucking time! Where you been up at?”

Tavros mouthed ‘is it Aradia’ exaggeratedly, pointing at the phone. Gamzee didn’t have the decency, or maybe the common sense -or just the care- to hold the phone away as he answered.

“Nah man, it’s my classy sis Maryam!”  
A mutual silence raged for a split second before Karkat actually jumped Gamzee, wrenching the phone away, much to Gamzee’s...actually veru mild shock.  
He held the phone to his ear tightly, as if it would somehow make him more hearable.

“Kanaya? Hello?”

“Karkat? Was that Gamzee, just now?”

Karkat exhaled loudly. He hadn’t heart from Kanaya in a long while, and it was strange to suddenly have her talking to him again.

“Yeah, fuckwad decided answering someone else’s phone was a motherfucking miraculous idea, or something, but fuck that up the ass because a slightly more pressing matter than his dazedly idiotic ways is _why the fuck are you calling here?_ ”

The voice on the other end turned mildly perturbed, but mostly mildly annoyed.

“I wasn’t aware I was calling at such an unfortunate time of your re-gathering. Pay me no heed then, I shall simply go back to my previous activities and leave you to your fun.”

Karkat smacked himself in the face.

“No no, wait! It’s just, I haven’t heard from you at all in a pretty long fucking time and I don’t even know how you got this number and I’m still a little bit on the paranoid side.”

A light touch of relief came as a dainty chuckle came from the other line.

“I was joking, Karkat. Teasing, if you will. …It has been a long time, has it not.”

Karkat, now back in the safe and relatively quiet haven of his room, closed his eyes for a moment.

“Yeah.”

 

 

Kanaya had, despite not being too far from his own age, practically raised him.  
After living on his own for a decent part of his childhood, often sneakily mooching off his friends much to his still present shame, he'd met Kanaya, who had moved away from her recently and abrubtly deceased mother and gotten a pretty good house from the heritage.   
She had a maternal streak she couldn’t help, and after finding out about Karkat after a little while of knowing him, she took him in without his consent.He was practically strapped down into bed and force-fed nutritious and quality food, until he realized it was better to just allow her to help him.    
Instead of occasionally visiting Sollux, Gamzee or even Terezi, and often getting a snack and some supply of heat, he regularly went to Kanaya’s place for all that and more, at her own insisting.  
After an amazingly short time she simply adopted him.  
Most of his friends were shocked and borderline insulted that he hadn’t told them about his shoddy lifestyle before once they found out. He was just too proud to admit anything like it. His father had always said he’d end up getting himself killed just to prove a point. And he most likely would have, eventually.  
With only an eight-year-old age gap, Kanaya sure made a good mother figure.

 

 

“Let us not dwell on that. I’m contacting you for an entirely different reason.”  
 _'She never did like to dwell on the dramatics'_ Karkat thought amusedly.

“I suppose I should explain myself, starting from the beginning. Please resist from interrupting, although I sincerely doubt you’ll manage that.”

“Are you doubting my availability to keep my mouth shut? I’ll have you know I’m completely fucking capable of it as long as I don’t find anything extravagantly stupid to correct.”

“Karkat, darling, do give me an example of your primary mouth-shutting.”

The hint finally taken (because arguing with Kanaya in her sassy mode was like staring into the sun, you had to yield sooner or later), Karkat sighed irritably, letting her figure out he was giving her her story-telling space.

“Alright, well. To begin with, I was assumed position at the local infantry and hospital. I can’t believe they joined the two, it is ridiculous. At any rate, I did not particularly want the job -the costumes are horrid, I’m afraid I’ll be allergic to washed-out teal after this- but because of our wondrous new system I simply didn’t have a choice. Now, as I understand it, someone is fighting against it, I haven’t the _faintest_ clue who.”  
Another hint grasped; don’t reveal anything.

“I think they’re being foolishly brave and dreaming much too big. Oh, but I digress. I hope your blood gathering went alright? I heard there had been some issue in your parts, and I was simply checking in, courtesy of my job and all.”  
Karkat frowned; there hadn’t been any specific issue, other than him trying his best to avoid getting culled for his blood. And that whole miraculo-  
Wait.

“That was you?”  
He half-whispered into the phone, awestruck by the revelation.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Karkat. I’m afraid I can’t hold up any longer if you have no qualms, duty calls. We should meet up again, though, perhaps at the usual place?”  
 _'Usual place?'_ They didn’t have any specific place, not one that hadn’t been destroyed or forgotten by now…

“Goodbye, Geneticist.”

The line went dead.

Their old chatline! The one Sollux had managed to make completely private, the stupidly capable hacker, they could talk about everything there without being overheard by the wrong people.

He hurriedly pocketed the phone, the debate on whether or not to disturb him going on outside falling on deaf ears, and threw the laptop open, cringing as something in it clicked.  
The chat client was still open, and grimAuxiliatrix was lit in a gentle jaded colour.

Karkat was in such a hurry to talk to her he didn’t even notice the blinking icon of a private message in the corner.

 

\--carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA] at 17:03--

 

CG: KANAYA?

GA: Karkat

CG: I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS OLD THING IS STILL WORKING.

GA: Sollux Certainly Knows His Technological Tricks

CG: YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN.

CG: HAVE YOU HEARD FROM HIM?

CG: AT ALL?

GA: Im Afraid Not

GA: I Thought Perhaps You Had

CG: I FIGURED AS MUCH, NEVER MIND.

CG: SO WHAT’S GOING ON?

GA: There Is Nothing In Specific Going On

GA: Can I Not Simply Converse With You Pleasantly

CG: KANAYA, STOP WITH THE PRISSY PRETENDING, WE BOTH KNOW YOU HAVE A PURPOSE IN THIS AND IT ISN’T HEARING MY MUSICAL VOICE.

GA: You Are Right

GA: However I Apologize If You Are Feeling Offended From My Lack Of Communication Towards You

GA: Things Havent Been Ideal For Ringing Up Old Acquaintances

CG: WHAT?

CG: NO, I DIDN’T MEAN IT LIKE THAT.

CG: SHIT, IT’S NOT LIKE I’VE BEEN ANY BETTER.

CG: I AM IN NO POSITION TO BE HINTING AT YOU BEING AT FAULT FOR ANYTHING, ESPECIALLY SINCE I HAVE A SNEAKING SUSPICION YOU SAVED MY GREY ASS.

GA: I Have Done No Particular Saving Of Your Ass

CG: However Grey It Is

CG: YEAH RIGHT.

CG: SOMEONE MEDDLED INTO MY LITTLE PROBLEM AND I KNOW SOMEONE WHO SURE AS HELL LOVES TO MEDDLE.

GA: I Cant Object To That

GA: However Rude The Sentiment Strikes Me

GA: I Simply Called In A Few Favors From Very Respected Highbloods

GA: And May Or May Not Have Consulted Bribery

GA: However It Seems To Have Proven Worth It

GA I Got A Very Rare And Forbidden Chemical With The Unique Ability To Change The Colour Of The Substance It Comes In Contact With Given It Is Liquid Without Being Traceable

GA: Not High Enough To Cause Suspicion But Enough To Erase Much Suspicion

GA: I Am Still Not Clear On Why You Refused To Reveal Your Bloodcolour But I Am Smart Enough To Make Deductions

GA: Not To Toot My Own Metaphorical Horn

CG: …SHIT.

CG: YOU DIDN’T GET IN TROUBLE? 

GA: Not As Of Yet

GA: I Have Not Been Found Out

CG: AS OF YET, YEAH.

CG: THANK YOU.

CG: I DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH EXACTLY YOU KNOW BUT YOU LITERALLY SAVED MY LIFE AND POSSIBLY ALSO A BITCHY COW’S LIFE.

CG: HOWEVER UNDESERVED THAT IS.

GA: I Do Not Understand

GA: What Do Cows Have To Do With Anything

CG: UGH, I’M TALKING OUT OF MY ASS AS USUAL.

CG: IGNORE ME, I’M JUST A PINGING MESS OF GREY LETTERS.

GA: I Will Let The Comment Regarding Cows Slip

GA: However Strange It Was

GA: There Was Something Else I Wanted To Talk To You About

CG: YEAH?

GA: You Are In The Process Of Rebelling Against The Systema Are You Not

CG:  WHAT?

CG: HOW DID YOU EVEN KNOW THAT.

CG: ASSUMING THAT IS SOMETHING I’M DOING.

GA: I Am Sorry To Sound Cocky

GA: But I Very Well Grew Up With And Raised You Karkat

GA: I Know You When I See You

GA: Not A Lot Of Trolls Have A Voice That Obnoxiously Loud

GA: Or A Physique That Short For A Grown Male

CG: YOU MEAN YOU SAW MY ACCIDENTAL, MORTIFYING PERFORMANCE WEEKS AGO?

CG: FUCK YOU I’M NOT EVEN THAT SHORT!!

GA: Im Sorry

GA: I Was Simply Stating My Facts

CG: I’M SURE THAT’S ALL YOU WERE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH HERE.

GA: I Would Very Much Like To Join You

GA: If That Is Alright

CG: JOIN ME

CG: IN WHAT?

CG: I’M CONFUSED AND APPREHENSIVE.

AG: Your Movement Of Course

GA: Joining The Preachers Choir As People Have Called It

CG: OKAY, WHAT THE FUCK IS EVEN UP WITH THAT.

CG: I AM SO NOT A PREACHER!

CG: I SWEAR TO GOD, THE STUPIDITY OF THESE PEOPLE. I NEVER ASKED FOR ANY OF THAT SHIT, THE TITLE OR THE UNFORTUNATE PUBLICITY. 

GA: I Agree

GA: You Don’t Seem At All Preacher Like To Me

CG: THANK YOU! FINALLY SOMEONE SAYS SOMETHING THAT MAKES SENSE.

GA: I Was Referring To Your Latest Scheme

CG: MY WHAT?

GA: Your Plan To Overthrow The Intentions Of The Systema To Move PowerFul And Possibly Lethal Machines To The Capital

GA: I Assumed

GA: Were You Not The One To Send Me The Article

CG: KANAYA, I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT YOU’RE EVEN TYPING, NO DOUBT VERY NEATLY, ON YOUR NEAT LITTLE KEYBOARD.

GAThis Is A Surprising Turn

GA: I Shall Send You The File

-grimAuxiliatrix sent file [aWltIGhlcmU=.png] to carcinoGeneticist:  at 17:17-

GA: I Found This In My Private Messaging Folder

GA: I Assumed It Was Your Doing

Karkat clicked open the link, and immediately what seemed to be a report or an article of some kind. 

On it was a single picture of some cords, plug-ins and wires, loaded with text on all hands. 

Most of it was in some strange code language Karkat didn’t know, but assumed it was some kind of military talking, what with all the “R. CB L. 346, P. 231” and more similar nonsense.

What he did gather from reading it, was that apparently a large shipment of some kind of equipment or machines was due tomorrow evening, with a train of trucks moving from the outskirts of town to the main city.

This equipment was supposedly going to help man the army, further aiding the Systema Amicis in their controlling of the public and seizing of control. 

It was exactly what they didn’t need, and exactly what Karkat was strifing for stopping. In short, it was the perfect project.

The page looked pilfered, and was most definitely not for the public’s eyes. More remarkably, Karkat had never even seen it before in his life.

  


CG: I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THIS IS.

CG: BUT IT’S PRETTY JUICY INFORMATION.

Hang on, was that his own PM icon lit yellow there?

He opened the Private Messaging, ignoring Kanaya’s ping as she continued talking, and was rewarded with the same file Karkat had seen just then. 

The sender was unknown. 

CG: THIS SHIT HAS EVERYTHING, THE TIME AND PLACE AND NUMBER OF GUARDS EVEN.

CG: WE OWE WHOEVER SENT THAT BIG TIME.

GA: It Could Be A Trap

CG: I GUESS THERE’S A POSSIBILITY.

CG: BUT IF NOT, THIS IS JUST TOO GOOD TO PASS UP.

CG: I’VE BEEN ITCHING FOR SOMETHING BIGGER TO DO ANYWAY.

GA: I Stand By My Inquiry To Come Along

CG: I Can Safely Say I Am Rather Tired Of This So Called System

CG: And Lord Knows How You Even Got Along Without Me

CG: I WONDER THAT MYSELF.

CG: BUT I DON’T THINK YOU COMING ALONG IS SUCH A HOT IDEA.

GA: Karkat

GA: This Is Not Up For Debate

GA: In Case You Have Forgotten I Am Well Wised In The Medical Field

GA: Not To Mention The Battle One

GA: It Is Only Logical And You Know So

CG: WELL.

CG: IF YOU THINK YOU CAN HANDLE IT, I WON’T OBJECT, I GUESS.

GA: Wise Choice

CG: I HOPE YOU KNOW THIS MIGHT GET PRETTY DANGEROUS.

AG: You Mistake Me For Someone Who Is Thrown Off By That

cCG: HAHA, YEAH, MY MISTAKE.

GA: You Are Forgiven

GA: I Will Talk To You Later Karkat

GA: Do Try To Stay Online Frequently

GA: Take Care

CG: YOU TOO.

\--carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA] at 17:34--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a whole lot more planned for this chapter but it turned out longer than I expected.  
> Sorry if it's terribly boring, and sorry for anyone who got the slightly unfinished one (in case someone still reads this?)  
> For the record; The SolKat interaction begins in the next chapter~


End file.
